'Provide facilities to disabled at doorstep'

Member of Legislative Council V R Sudarshan has opined that physically-challenged people should be provided the benefits of welfare schemes of the goverment at their doorsteps.

“There are 44,000 physically-challenged people in the district out of whom identity cards are yet to be issued to 22,000. It is difficult for these people to come to taluk and district centres by public transport to obtain identity cards and other benefits. A survey should therefore be conducted to deliver services at the doorsteps,” the MLC felt while speaking after inaugurating International Day for Persons with Disabilities, here on Thursday.

Pointing out that only eight people have availed benefits under ‘Adhara’ scheme during the year 2008-09, Sudarshan emphasised on the need to create awareness on the welfare schemes formulated by the government for the benefit of physically-challenged people. “The Health Department and Department for the Welfare of physically-challenged need to work in tandem to achieve the purpose,” he noted.

Sudarshan postulated that neither the Department nor the government should cite paucity of funds to provide benefits for physically-challenged people. Collective efforts must be made to ensure level-playing field for such community of people.

Legislator R Varthur Prakash disclosed that the process of allotting 10,000 sites to poor people in the City has been set in motion and 1,000 sites will be distributed to physically-challenged people. Predicting that the BJP government in the State will collapse next year paving for Congress-JD(S) coalition dispensation, Varthur said that “golden days” are not far away for the physically-challenged people under the new ruling estalishment. ZP president M Srinivasan and others were present on the occasion.

Dharna staged

Meanwhile, rehabilitation workers staged a dharna alleging that they had been neglected at the programme.

 “We were not given an opportunity to convey our problems to the elected representatives during the programme,” they pointed out that the programme should have been held in the ground floor so as to enable easy access for the physically-challenged.

“There are rehabilitation workers each at Gram Panchayat and taluk levels. We conduct surveys by going from door-to-door. However, we are being meagre honourarium,” they rued.