JOIN USVisually impaired seek employment rights in PSUs
He has now come to Delhi to present his case to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with the hope of resolving the issue, which has aggravated due to denial of his basic right to employment by public undertakings.
According to the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995, all persons with disabilities have the right to employment under the three per cent reserved quota in public undertakings. However, members of National Federation of Blind allege that since 1996, all posts have not been filled as undertakings had failed to provide true information about vacancies for the disabled.
The members of the federation say the extension of a special drive by the government to recruit visually impaired candidates in public undertakings till March 2012 will not be successful till they are informed about vacancies.
Employment
“We want our members to be employed. We will protest at the Jantar Mantar Road and will stay here in tents till our demands are not met. We will present our demands to the prime minister requesting him to look into the matter,” said Ramakanth Singh, vice president of the federation.
Close to 200 visually impaired have started a sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar to support their cause.
The visually impaired allege that many public undertakings have reported ‘nil’ vacancies under the disabilities quota. “Ministries of Railways and Communications have several backlog vacancies. Why are they not reporting the correct position of vacancies to recruitment agencies? Why are they denying us our basic rights?” asked S K Rungta, general secretary of the federation.
Right information
“We demand for correct information on the number of vacancies since the Disability Act came into effect. Plus centralised recruitment within two months is essential as most of our members are unemployed. We have spoken with Rahul Gandhi about our issues. We hope that he will help us,” added Rungta.