Plea to form district-level committee to address issues of differently abled people

A district-level monitoring committee comprising of representatives of associations and officials should be constituted to address the issues pertaining to differently abled people in a timely manner, demanded participants of a special grievance redress meeting here on Wednesday.

They also demanded that the monthly district-level meetings must be conducted without fail as otherwise demands and grievances of the differently abled people got lumped together and remained unaddressed by the officials. 

Collector M.S. Sangeetha assured them that steps would be taken to conduct the meetings regularly.  

Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of All Types of Differently Abled and Caregivers (TARATDAC) said many of the beneficiaries of monthly monetary assistance, due to their disability, had to make an arduous journey to banks every month to withdraw the money. Instead, provisions could be made to issue debit cards to them so that even the beneficiaries’ relatives could withdraw the money on behalf of them.  

Saying disability qualifying tests carried out to issue medical certificates were not done properly, they asked the Collector to check the procedures followed by the doctors and officials concerned to determine the level of disability.  

Other demands raised at the meeting were - immediate disbursal of monthly assistance to the eligible persons; earmarking one day in a month for allowing differently abled people to get driving licence; and employment of sign language interpreters.  

Some of the participants complained that differently abled people with bus passes were not allowed to board 1-to-1 bus services of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation from Mattuthavani bus stand to Arappalayam bus stand. 

A TNSTC representative said that as per the norms for operation of such non-stop buses, bus passes were not permitted. Responding to this, Ms. Sangeetha asked them to request the State government to permit differently abled people with bus passes to travel in those buses.

Earlier in the meeting, B. Aparna, a differently abled woman who has built a house under Kalaignar Kanavu scheme in Kallikudi taluk alleged that electricity connection to her house was denied by the officials.  Through her petition, she appealed to the administration to immediately provide electricity connection to her house. 

Published - December 11, 2024 08:45 pm IST