Chandigarh, December 3

On the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, visually impaired persons on Monday protested outside the Civil Secretariat here. They rued that the backlog of jobs reserved for blind persons was not being filled.

Agitating under the banner of Netraheen Kalyan Manch, Haryana, the visually impaired said they had come to the Secretariat to meet Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar for their demands, but could not meet him as he was not in the Secretariat.

Nishchal, patron of the organisation, Kulwant, president, Gaurav, vice-president, and Sandeep, general secretary, said the number of posts reserved for the blind in 18,218 Group D posts recently should have been 182 as per their 1 per cent share, but applications were invited for only 136 posts in their category.

They demanded that 182 blind persons should be appointed to Group D posts as per the quota share. They alleged that the backlog of reservation of government jobs for them was not being filled since 1995 and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (PWD) Act, 2016, is not being implemented in Haryana.

They alleged that institutes for the blind being run in Hisar and Sirsa were in a poor state because of paucity of funds, but the government was not willing to take these centres in its hands. Nishchal said they had been raising their demands at various platforms, but the government remained unmoved.

They said they had warned the government that in case the Chief Minister did not call them to listen to their demands and resolve these by December 3, they would observe the International Day of Persons with Disabilities as a black day.
Source: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/haryana/visually-impaired-decry-govt-apathy/692802.html