Nagpur: Maharashtra Highway Police has all set to launch a statewide initiative – Mrityunjay Doot – across all National and State Highways in Maharashtra wherein cops will rope in local villagers, dhaba owners, petrol pump workers, doctors and hospitals to make optimum use of the golden hour in the cases of mishaps. Conceptualized by Additional Director General of Police (ADG), State Highway Traffic, Dr Bhushankumar Upadhayay, the ‘Mrityunjay Doot’ initiative kicks off next month where volunteers will be trained to administer first-aid, safely carry a crash victim in the case of an accident.
The objective is to ensure medical aid for the victims quickly and to bring down fatal accidents on the highways, discussed Dr B K Upadhayay.
“The Golden Hour plays a significant role whenever an accident occurs. It is the most precious hour in which the injured has to be administered medical treatment. When a mishap occurs on a highway, the locals are the first responded. However, we have seen that locals do not know what are the basic first-aid and medical steps that need to be followed to save an injured person or avoid permanent damage,” informed Dr Upadhayay to Nagpur Today and added that, “Our objective is to bring down the fatal accidents by ensuring medical aid for the victims. From March, we’ll start the ‘Mriyunjay Doot’ initiative across the State,” he added.
Elaborating about ‘Mriyunjay Doot’, Dr Upadhayay said, “Besides, both highway and local police, we would rope-in villagers, dhaba owners, petrol pump workers and others who would work as Mrityunjay Doots. They will be enabled with basic training on how to respond when there is an accident and would also provide stretchers, I-cards to them.”
“The one who helps an injured person will not be harassed either by police or by the hospital,” assured the ADG.
Maharashtra was one of the top three states with the highest number of road deaths with over 11,000 fatalities in year 2020; with Nashik rural, Ahmednagar and Pune rural among the areas with highest road deaths in the State. There are 98 National Highways and 378 State Highways which are currently being manned by 3000 police personnel from the Highway Police.
