Create special fund for disabled: Court

Surprised over the allocation of `10,000 to each district welfare officer to take care of physically challenged persons, the Telangana High Court on Friday directed the government to immediately create a special fund to help persons with disabilities (PwDs).

A division bench headed by the Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan gave the order on a PIL filed by one Ganesh Karanti seeking a direction to the government on the problems of PwDs. Kovvuturi Pavan Kumar, counsel for the petitioner, said PwDs in the state have to depend on the generosity of donors. In the absence of donors, a PwD is forced to live in deplorable conditions.

The Chief Justice asked Advocate General B.S.

Prasad, the rationale behind such a meagre allocation. “For 40,000 advocates, the government has created a corpus of `25 crores whereas for a population of 7,81,317 lakh physically disabled persons an allocation of this meagre amount is a pittance. The government has literally let these poor, needy and weakest section of society survive at the mercy of donors”, Justice Chauhan said.

He noted that monthly groceries cost nearly `4,000. “It is a sorry state of affairs where the state is ignoring these persons. Their rights and interest cannot be ignored by the government, that too during the serious circumstances prevailing in the state,” he said.

The AG said the government had allocated `1 crore to ameliorate the distress conditions of the PwDs.