Odisha has directed its police leadership to correct delays that prevented 58 road accident victims from accessing cashless treatment under the Centre-sponsored PM-Rahat scheme, after official meeting minutes recorded that police responses were not completed within the required 24-hour window.
The scheme, launched in Odisha in April, provides road accident victims with cashless treatment of up to Rs 1.5 lakh for seven days from the date of the accident. Official sources said 380 patients had received benefits under the initiative by July, while 58 injured victims could not use it because police did not respond within 24 hours of their hospital admission.
The direction was issued at a recent meeting chaired by Odisha development commissioner Deoranjan Kumar Singh. The state government has asked the Director General of Police to issue instructions to all superintendents of police and deputy commissioners of police to ensure that PM-Rahat cases are verified and approved within 24 hours of an accident.
“The number of people availing benefits under the scheme is comparatively lower in the state. In some districts, not even a single accident victim has availed the benefit. In many cases, people could not avail the benefit due to an untimely response by the police,” the meeting minutes said.
Under the operating procedure, the hospital informs the local police after an accident victim is admitted. Police personnel are then expected to visit the accident site, verify the details and send approval to the hospital through the government’s electronic detailed accident report, or e-DAR, database within 24 hours.
Police officers must generate victim identification numbers and process hospital requests on the e-DAR platform by approving, rejecting or transferring them. The system is therefore dependent not only on the availability of cashless treatment but also on rapid coordination between hospitals, police and transport authorities.
A senior police officer said the department had taken note of the issue and that officers would be sensitised. The government has also directed the state transport authority and health department to conduct an awareness campaign so that accident victims and hospitals are familiar with the scheme and its procedures.
The crime branch has been asked to develop a daily monitoring dashboard for PM-Rahat cases. The meeting minutes also called for ambulances and highway patrol vehicles to be positioned at suitable intervals along vulnerable highway stretches to improve emergency response during the golden hour, the first hour after a traumatic injury when prompt medical treatment can significantly improve survival chances.
The government’s stated next steps are the issuance of police instructions, wider publicity for the scheme, daily monitoring through the proposed dashboard and improved placement of emergency-response vehicles on vulnerable highway routes.
