New Delhi, Dec 12 (PTI) The number of road accident victims treated under the “‘Farishtey Dilli Ke” scheme has “dropped sharply” since the AAP government’s flagship project hit a financial roadblock last year, sources claimed on Tuesday.
The Arvind Kejriwal government has approached the Supreme Court seeking immediate re-operationalisation of the scheme by clearing pending bills, releasing timely payments to private hospitals and initiating disciplinary action against officials responsible for deliberately orchestrating the “de-operationalisation” of the scheme.
Launched in 2018, the ‘Farishtey Dilli Ke’ scheme encourages people to rescue road accident victims. Under the scheme, the government foots the hospital bills of those who have met with accidents in the city.
Sources said that around 5,000 road accident victims were treated under the scheme between September 2021 and September 2022 when payments were stopped.
The number of people treated at private hospitals under the scheme dropped to around 3,000 between October 2022 and October 2023, they said, adding this shows around 40 per cent drop in the number of beneficiaries of the scheme.
Earlier, Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj had written to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal about the pending payment of Rs 7.17 crore to 42 private hospitals that treated road accident victims since December 2022.
Kejriwal wrote to Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on October 27, accuing officials for allegedly obstructing the scheme and urging him to ensure payment of pending hospital bills.
Officials, however, said that the claim of decline in the number of beneficiaries was not accurate as it was not calculated year-wise. In 2022-23, as many as 3,698 accident victims were treated under the scheme and this year (2023-24) the number of beneficiaries till October was 3,604, they said.
Payments for 2,212 accident victims treated under the scheme, amounting to Rs 2,08 crore, were released this year. Payment of Rs 1.46 crore for the treatment of 1,392 accident victims will be made to the hospitals after the finance department releases the funds, the officials added.
Delhi recorded the maximum number of road crash fatalities in the country in 2022 with 2,103 people losing their lives, according to the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau. It states that Delhi accounted for the highest number of road accidents in the country at 5,387. PTI VIT NSD NSD
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Source: The Print
