Gov­ern­ment is in the process of replac­ing the Per­sons with Dis­abil­ity Act

The Pres­i­dent, Shri Pranab Mukher­jee said the Gov­ern­ment is in the process of replac­ing the Per­sons with Dis­abil­ity Act with a new leg­is­la­tion and urged the Gov­ern­ment to expe­dite the process and intro­duce it in the Par­lia­ment a soon as pos­si­ble. He was pre­sent­ing the National Awards for the Empow­er­ment of Per­sons with Disabilities-2012 at a func­tion orga­nized by the Min­istry of Social Jus­tice & Empow­er­ment, in New Delhi, as on 6th Feb­ru­ary. The Pres­i­dent also said that there is an urgent need to pro­vide edu­ca­tion to chil­dren with dis­abil­ity, cre­ate Bar­rier free access and fill up back­log on vacan­cies for the dis­abled and also urged the pri­vate sec­tor to par­tic­i­pate in this process.

Extend­ing a warm wel­come to the Pres­i­dent, the Union Min­is­ter of Social Jus­tice & Empow­er­ment Kumari Selja said that we rec­og­nize that per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties are a valu­able human resource and must be given oppor­tu­ni­ties to con­tribute equally with oth­ers in national build­ing. The Gov­ern­ment is com­mit­ted to con­tinue its endeav­our to empower the Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties with the coop­er­a­tion of every cit­i­zen of the coun­try. With the com­mence­ment of the XIIth Plan, we have also com­menced the process of plan­ning a major expan­sion of pro­grammes and schemes in the dis­abil­ity sec­tor for bring­ing Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties on cen­tre stage in the devel­op­men­tal process.

The Min­is­ter said that she was happy to share that dur­ing last two years, a sum of Rs. 85 crore was released to var­i­ous State Gov­ern­ments and other bod­ies for mak­ing their premises/buildings acces­si­ble to per­sons with disabilities.

The Min­is­ter fur­ther added that for the first time, a sum of Rs.5 crore was sanc­tioned to the Archae­o­log­i­cal Sur­vey of India (ASI) for mak­ing five World Her­itage Sites and 25 other tick­eted Mon­u­ments main­tained by it, acces­si­ble. These world her­itage mon­u­ments are the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Fateh­pur Sikri, Sun Tem­ple Konark, and Champaner-Pavagadh. We pro­pose to cover all World Her­itage sites and other tick­eted mon­u­ments of ASI, as rapidly as pos­si­ble. Fur­ther, a sum of about Rs.12 crore was also sanc­tioned to Jawa­har­lal Nehru Uni­ver­sity & Delhi Uni­ver­sity to make their build­ings, hos­tels, guest houses and libraries accessible.

The Min­is­ter informed that the draft new leg­is­la­tion named “Right to Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties Bill, 2012” has been final­ized by the Min­istry and has been cir­cu­lated to the States Gov­ern­ments and UTs, for their com­ments. It will be our endeavor to intro­duce the Bill in the Par­lia­ment at the earliest.

Source : My Wellness Club