PANAJI
Some 118 families of road accident victims since 2020 have been paid ex-gratia to the tune of Rs 2.34 crore by the Goa government.
Also claims of 37 others were rejected due to various reasons, according to Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho's written reply in the Goa legislative assembly to a query posed by Margao MLA Digambar Kamat.
Kamat's unstarred question had sought information and statistics related to the Road Accidental Death Financial Assistance Scheme of the the last three years.
Godinho's written answer said, 181 applications were received and 118 family members of victims were paid Rs 2 lakh each.
In 2020, the government had received 38 applications under the scheme and 29 of these were given the Rs 2-lakh ex-gratia aggregating a Rs 58 lakh outgo.
The next year, 39 of the 55 applications were cleared and in 2022, 29 of the 36 family members of road accident victims who applied got the money.
This year until July 7, 21 of the 52 people who applied got the money.
As many as 37 applications were rejected due to various reasons one such was the case of a Gujarati person who died in Goa on May 18, 2019. His relatives applied in June the next year but their plea was declined.
Godinho's reply also said that 26 applications were still not decided upon and have been kept pending as in these cases the mandated undertaking had not been furnished. There are also 25 new applications for this ex-gratia received this year.
The causes of the accidents which claimed the lives of these victims whose families have been compensated by the Goa government include careless driving, pedestrians being knocked down, vehicles crashing into cattle and a couple of cases of trees falling on vehicles.
