PMO’s aid for disabled Kashmiris seen as a move to win voters : JAIPUR

A move by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to give mobility and dignity to about 1,300 disabled Kashmiris is being viewed by political observers as BJP’s ploy to win over voters of Jammu and Kashmir ahead of Assembly elections.

Based on the recommendations of the Union Home ministry and the Kashmir government, PMO has given a generous grant to the Jaipur Foot organisation’s parent body Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti to organise a rehabilitation camp in Srinagar from Thursday.

The camp will provide mobility aids to 1,300 physically challenged Kashmiris.

According to D R Mehta, founder of the samiti,  the participants will be given artificial limbs (Jaipur Foot) and other aids and appliances such as calipers, wheel-chairs, and tricycles.

 He hoped the camp would make a positive impact on the people in the state and dispel fears and sense of alienation among the people of that state. A team of 12 experts and artisans led by Veerendra Raj Mehta, Executive President of the BMVSS Centre at Delhi will hold the camp with the active support of the Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir. Veerendra Raj Mehta, who is a former Consultant of the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines and is also a Trustee of the Mumbai Dorab Tata Trust has rich experience in holding such camp. he was instrumental in setting up a Jaipur Foot Centre at Manila with his wife Vimla Mehta when he was stationed in Manila. The Philippines ” Senate ( parliament) honoured Mehtas by presenting him the key to Manila City for the yeoman service he did for the disabled in the Philippines. Veerendra Raj . Mehta said that the BMVSS has organised three camps at Srinagar,Baramulla and Kupwara in 2012, including a camp with the help of the Indian Army along the Line of Control (LOC) thus benefiting 800 persons..”

It has been noted during our camps that the demand for the Jaipur Foot and wheel chairs and tricycles is very high in the Valley and the needy are generally poor people who are unable to afford these aids and appliances.

The position is particularly acute in the area along the LOC due to frequent shelling in districts bordering the LOC and for accidents and congenital reasons said V R Mehta.



Source : The Free Press Journal , 28th August 2014