Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Launches Rewarding Scheme for Grant of Award to the Good Samaritan who has saved life of a victim of a fatal accident involving a motor vehicle

What is the news?

Recently, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has issued Guidelines for the Scheme for grant of Award to the Good Samaritan who has saved the life of a victim from a fatal accident involving a motor vehicle.

Who is a Good Samaritan?

A Good Samaritan is a person who voluntarily comes forward to administer emergency care to a person injured in an accident, or crash, or emergency medical condition, or emergency situation. He does this help without expecting anything, financial or otherwise, in return.

What is the Good Samaritan Law?

Good Samaritan Law protects Good Samaritans from harassment on the actions being taken by them to save the life of the road accident victims.

In 2016, the Supreme Court of India gave “force of law” to the guidelines for the protection of Good Samaritans issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

What is the rewarding scheme all about?

It will award the Good Samaritan who has saved the life of a victim within the Golden Hour of the accident.  Under this scheme, an individual Good Samaritan can be awarded a maximum of 5 times a year. The amount of award for the Good Samaritan(s) would be Rs.5,00/- per incident. State governments are responsible for the plan, with the Centre providing an initial grant.

How the Good Samaritan will be selected?

The District Level Appraisal Committee will review and approve the proposals on a monthly basis based on the receipts of communication from the Police Station/Hospital. This appraisal committee consists of District Magistrate, SSP, Chief Medical and Health Officer, RTO (Transport Department) of the concerned District.

The committee would sanction and send the cases to the concerned State/UT Transport Depart for making the payment to the Good Samaritans.

There is another State Level Monitoring Committee. It consists under Chairmanship of Principal Secretary (Home), Commissioner (Health) and ADGP (Traffic & Road Safety) as Members and Transport Commissioner as Member Secretary.  This committee will quarterly monitor the proper implementation of the scheme. This committee will also nominate the three most worthy proposals for national-level awards on yearly basis to the MoRTH for further consideration.

Based on the recommendation from state committees, the best ten Good Samaritans of the year would be selected at the national level. They will be awarded Rs. 1,00,000/- each along with a Certificate and trophy during National Road Safety Month (NRSM) in Delhi.

Source: This post is based on the article “Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Launches Rewarding Scheme for Grant of Award to the Good Samaritan who has saved life of a victim of a fatal accident involving a motor vehicle” published in PIB on 5^th October 2021.