Odisha extends deadline for claiming compensation in hit-and-run cases to 1 year

BHUBANESWAR: The state government has extended the deadline for the submission of applications to claim compensations in connection with hit-and-run accident cases from six months to a year. The move aims to give adequate time to beneficiaries to avail themselves of the compensation.
The state government had on May 14, 2018 launched a solatium fund scheme as part of which the legal heir of a deceased in a hit-and-run accident case is entitled to get Rs 2 lakh compensation. A critically injured person is entitled to get Rs 50,000 under the scheme.
“We had been noticing that not many people (legal heirs) were able to apply for the compensation within six months. In order to give them more window and opportunity, we have extended the time limit to one year. The official notification regarding the extended deadline has been issued,” Madhu Sudan Padhi, secretary of the state commerce and transport department, said.
According to the existing procedure, an applicant (legal heir) needs to apply for the compensation to the regional transport officers (RTO) concerned under whose jurisdiction the hit-and-run case occurred within one year from the date of the accident. The RTO will conduct a thorough field inquiry and send the report to the transport commissioner for sanction of the compensation. While RTOs are supposed to complete their probe within a month, the transport commissioner should release the claim amount within 15 days from the date of receipt of the probe report.
Statistics showed a poor response from people to the compensation scheme. Altogether 1,108 and 907 persons had died in hit-and-run accidents in the state in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Besides, 1,250 and 902 persons had sustained grievous injuries in hit-and-run cases across the state in 2019 and 2020. However, the transport department received only 140 applications (kin of the dead and injured taken together) in 2019 and 2020 from the beneficiaries. Compensation was paid to only 92 applicants in cases relating to death and injuries in the hit-and-run cases during the two years.
“We disbursed Rs 47 lakh compensation towards deaths and Rs 2.5 lakh to the injured in hit-and-run cases in 2019. Compensation of Rs 1.6 crore was paid to the legal heirs of the deceased and Rs 5 lakh to the injured persons in 2020. Not many people are aware of the scheme,” another transport department official said.
If a beneficiary receives insurance worth Rs 2 lakh from any other company, he or she becomes ineligible to avail of the government’s solatium scheme. If a beneficiary receives an insurance of Rs 1 lakh from an insurance company, he or she is entitled to get only Rs 1 lakh under the solatium scheme, the official said.
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