In the outskirts of Bengaluru, the devanahalli police are doing something seen for the first time in India. The traffic police there have decided to pool money and save the lives of accident victims.
Many times after an accident it takes time to identify a victim and contact their relatives. Meanwhile, in hospitals doctors refuse treatment before payment. So seeing the plight of the victims the cops decided to pool some money and help them.“Many lives are lost because of the delay in medical relief. When we take them to the hospital, doctors prescribe CT scan and other tests that require money,” says police inspector Rajesh L Y to Deccanherald.
He says when he gave the idea to create an Emergency Relief Fund (ERF), his colleagues willingly agreed. He made a personal contribution of 5000 INR, and then others chipped in a sum total of 15000 INR. The police pledged not to wait for the victims family and to carry on the treatment with the ERF’s money as first few hours are very precious to save the lives of accident victims .
They made this fund even before the government announced the scheme to pay 25000 INR for the treatment of accident victims under Mukhyamantri Santwana ‘Harish’ scheme. They have saved 8 lives till now and Rajesh says, “In several cases, the victim’s relatives returned the money. In some cases, the victim dies despite our best efforts but we never demanded the money back from the relatives.”
The Logical Indian salutes the effort made by the devanahalli cops and wishes that they save many more lives with their initiative, we hope that others are also inspired by them.