Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Wednesday asked the officials to clear the backlog of jobs for the visually impaired.

Officials said that at present, there is a backlog of 163 jobs kept for the physically challenged.  The Chief Minister, who presided over a meeting here, directed the backlog of 65 jobs for the visually impaired should be cleared soon.

The meeting decided to relax some qualification norms, particularly for teaching posts in the state's Education Department, for the physically challenged.

“Whoever wins and forms the next government should be able to address the important issues of unemployment in Punjab. There should be job opportunities for everyone, including the physically disabled,” said Vikram Singh, a first-time voter and a visually impaired student at the Institute of Blind in the city. About 35 visually impaired voters, four of them being first-timers, cast their votes today using the Punjabi Braille script ballot papers in the city.

In a first, the Ministry of Science and Technology has come up with a comprehensive Braille atlas for nearly 50 lakh visually challenged people in the country, especially students.

The atlas has 20 maps on different themes like physical, socio-economic, river system, crops pattern, natural vegetation, cultural, metropolitan areas, roads and railways, and crops.

India's recent mixed signals over Pakistan may have left a window open for dialogue once the elections in UP are over. Months after Pakistani film stars with valid work visas were hounded out, its visually-impaired citizens have been accorded all due courtesies for a cricket tournament. The Indian Council for Cultural Relations has contributed to the Karachi Literary Festival even as encounters and curfew continue in Kashmir. After a long time, New Delhi is witnessing an absence of deliberately whipped-up anger.

The Indian blind cricket team, which won the T20 World Cup recently, was felicitated by the Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports, Government of Karnataka, here on Monday.

At a function presided over by Pramod Madhwaraj, Minister of State for Youth Services and Sports, Prakasha Jayaramaiah and R. Sunil, the two cricketers from the State who played a winning hand, were honoured with cash awards of Rs. 7 lakh each. The duo was promised jobs in the State government.