Demanding filling of backlog of over 5,000 posts, employment according to capability and enhancement of pension, hundreds of physically-disabled persons, mostly Dalits, are sitting on a protest for more than past four months in Mansa.

Protesters said a panel meeting with Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal was held on June 18 where some of their demands were met on paper only as they turned to be ‘false promises’.

‘Dalit icon’ Bant Singh Jhabbar of Mansa district, too, joined the protest at the District Complex to support the demands of the physically-challenged. He claimed that the government had failed to provide wheelchairs to handicaps, mostly consisting of Dalits and the poor. “For many years, I have been demanding a wheelchair from the district administration but it has failed to give us one. An NGO from Pune had once honoured me with the chair. I only want to remind the government that it was its duty to provide wheelchairs to handicaps, among whom are mostly Dalits. The government is dramatically arranging national seminars on BR Ambedkar but paid no heed to the demands of Dalits. The ruling politicians disburse a few wheelchairs on the occasion of Independence Day or Republic Day only to gain political mileage,” he said.

Mansa Deputy Commissioner Varinder Sharma said, “There have been no special funds for distributing wheelchairs. However, this Independence Day, some wheelchairs were distributed. In my term of around one year, we have been able to distribute around 15 wheelchairs only. I have managed a panel meeting of protesting disabled persons with the CM of Punjab but the protestors wanted immediate fulfillment of their demands and that is not possible. Around 150 blindly-disabled were given an appointment letter by Punjab CM.”

Avinash, general secretary, Punjab Physically Handicap Association, said, “We are demanding that the backlog of over 500 posts be filled and education and health facilities to physically-challenged and to their children should be given free of cost. Wheelchairs are not our primary demand but these should be given to all those who need them.”

Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/cities/bathinda/specially-challenged-workers-protest-non-disbursal-of-wheelchairs-by-govt/305908.html