Visually challenged people flay govt apathy
Over 200 visually challenged people from all over the State, staged a dharna in front of Mahatma Gandhi statue on M G Road on Louis Braille’s birth anniversary on Monday.
The organisation was protesting against the State government’s apathy in resolving issues related to the welfare of the blind. The dharna was organised by the Karnataka chapter of National Federation of the Blind.
President of the Federation, Goutam Agarwal said that several matters related to the employment of visually challenged in the government sector was pending before the State government. The one per cent reservation in Group A and B categories and 2 per cent reservation guaranteed in C and D categories have not been implemented, Agarwal said. “Even though there is a Government of India order to implement this reservation and clear the backlog, nothing has been done about it. In Karnataka, not even 100 posts meant for visually challenged have been filled,” he lamented.
Another matter that groups working for visually challenged have been unhappy about is the allowance guaranteed for unemployed people who have been registered with the Special Employment Exchange. Karnataka, according to Agarwal, is way behind in this initiative as it has not even bothered to fix the amount per person.
Even the four special schools in the State suffer from lack of staff as only 50 per cent of the posts have been filled. A memorandum with all the complaints was submitted to the Chief Minister’s office.
