Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched an innovative road safety programme, 'Rakshak', here on Wednesday.
Patnaik said the first-of-its-kind programme in the country, organised by the Transport Department, would train as many as 30,000 First Responders for at least 30 weeks in all 30 districts.
He hoped that this would provide immediate assistance and treatment to the victims of road accidents and save many lives. The CM said road accidents lead to not just the loss of one person or one family; this is the loss of society and it affects economy also. "So we all need to work together to prevent this," he said. He reiterated that the responsibility of drivers in this regard is the same as that of road users. In addition, other people at the accident scene have special responsibilities. "If they cooperate a little bit, a lot of lives will be saved," he said, adding, the first hour of the accident is most important.
He announced that the Government has a provision of providing Rs 2,000 for the first ones who come forward to help the accident victims and the Government has set a corpus fund of Rs 147 crore for immediate treatment of accident victims.