IMPHAL Jan 31: Authorities of the Handicap Development Foundation, (HDF) Manipur alleged that the department of Social Welfare has not cleared the monthly allowance money meant for unemployed disabled persons since July 2009.
Talking to mediapersons at Manipur Press Club , vice chairman of the foundation P Gopen stated that disabled persons registered in the employment exchange avails a monthly income ranging from Rs 100 to 250 based on the person’s educational qualification. The amount is wholly sponsored by the Central Government under the NPRPD scheme and more than 2000 disabled persons of the state are registered as recipients of the scheme.
He further charged that a sum of nearly 5 lacs deposited to the account of the Social Welfare department for the previous financial year still has not been distributed to the disabled persons , in the connection he appealed the concerned authorities to investigate the matter , so that the physically challenged persons are not deprived of their rights.
In a different note , General Secreatary of HDF , Jaswanta Sapam applauded the undertakings in preparation of the Census Report 2011 for including a section for verification of disabled persons which was absent earlier.
He stated that the family members of the disabled persons needs to oblige the enumerators and refrain from hiding the disabled, the stigma and discrimination needs to be overcome for the interest of the disabled persons. He added that a concise report would help the disabled persons in the implementation of development schemes aimed at their welfare.
Earlier, the census reports excluded the statistics of the total number of disabled persons in the state and approximate numbers of disabled have been fixed by enumerators without proper survey. Such practices are the main drawbacks when implementing development projects.
