The Rajasthan government’s Transport Department has brought back a bleeding-controlling ointment, Feracrylum, to the first aid kits of all motor vehicles being henceforth registered following a direction of the High Court, which had recently stayed a Central notification omitting the gel from the mandatory medical provisions in the vehicles.
The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) had issued a gazette notification on December 18, 2019, for insertion of Feracryclum in the first aid kits after due consideration and analysing various expert studies. The necessary amendments were also brought in the Central Motor Vehicles Rules.
Feracrylum has been recognised to be a haemostatic agent by several clinical studies.
A public interest litigation filed in the Rajasthan High Court said that the MoRTH, through a notification on June 16, 2020, had arbitrarily decided to overrule the earlier notification and excluded Feracrylum from the first aid kits.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice Prakash Gupta stayed the operation of the notification by its order on September 29 and mandated inclusion of Feracrylum gel in all first aid kits.
