HC slams govt over neglect of disabled persons

Pointing to the tight-fisted attitude of the state government in apportioning money for the contingency fund to meet the needs of disabled persons in this critical time, the Telangana High Court asked if the government does not have any money or is it that the government is not interested in the welfare of people with disabilities.

The division bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B.Vijayasen Reddy was hearing a public interest litigation on Wednesday, pertaining to the non-implementation of the central government's guidelines on physically disabled people during the Covid-19 pandemic.

At an earlier hearing, the court had asked the state government to sanction the `10 crore towards the contingency fund, following the request forwarded by the Commissioner of Disabilities. The state had submitted that the welfare schemes had been provided to disabled people in the form of Asara pension scheme, but was silent on sanctioning of the funds.

On Wednesday, Divya Devarajan, the Special Secretary to Government, Disabled Department, who appeared before the court through a video conference, informed the court that about `3.5 crore was available with the department for any emergency requirements during the present pandemic. She said the state government was already regularly making payment of `3,016 per month to about 4,93,274 disabled people in the state under its Aasra Pension Scheme.

After noticing from the government's own report that according to the 2011 Census, there are more than 10 lakh disabled persons in the state, the court asked the Secretary what measures the government is taking for the welfare of those disabled persons who are not covered by the Aasra Pension Scheme, as a majority of disabled persons do not seem to be covered by the Aasra scheme.

“Unfortunately, bureaucrats are reluctant to go out into the countryside and inspect the implementation of schemes”, the Chief Justice observed.