Nitin Gadkari Announces Good Samaritans to Get Rs 25,000 for Helping Accident Victims

Nagpur: Speaking during an event in Nagpur, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said that good Samaritans who assist injured accident victims will be rewarded Rs 25,000, five times the current reward.

Gadkari said that the current reward of Rs 5,000 was not sufficient for those who rush road accident victims to hospitals within the critical first hour following the incident.

The minister further mentioned that the government would now cover hospital expenses up to Rs 1.5 lakh for the first seven days for individuals injured in accidents.

In the event Gadkari said, “This scheme is not only limited to those injured on national highways but also applies to people injured on state highways,”

According to the Good Samaritans scheme, launched in October 2021, individuals who save the life of a fatal accident victim by providing immediate assistance and rushing them to a hospital within the Golden Hour (the first hour after the accident) will be rewarded.

The government defines Good Samaritans "who, in good faith, without expectation of payment or reward and without any duty of care or special relationship, voluntarily comes forward to administer immediate assistance or emergency care to a person injured in an accident, or crash, or emergency medical condition, or emergency situation".

In an event that followed during the inauguration of Z-Morh tunnel in Sonmarg, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said, "... To make India developed, we have to improve the infrastructure of our country. Unless these four things - water, energy, transport and communication - are developed, industry, tourism and trade cannot be promoted. Therefore, the Prime Minister has given us the responsibility of this infrastructural development with the resolve to make Jammu and Kashmir happy, prosperous, rich and developed along with developed India...The mission set by the Prime Minister is that industries and businesses should come here to make Jammu and Kashmir happy, prosperous and rich... With this feeling, we are trying to develop this infrastructure."

(with agency inputs)