Contrary to the claims of government that it is inflexibly committed for the welfare of disabled persons in the state and always boastful of its Aasra pension scheme, the plight of the divyang people are remain same who are still denouncing the government for turning a blind eye towards their misery.
“Barring a monthly pension, all other issues of disabled people remain same as earlier. Double bedroom houses, employment and subsidy loans are still a distant dream. Leave alone other issues, even the loans are not been granted since 2018 keeping the funds promised in the budget completely unutilized,” rued Syed Afroz, President Telangana Disabled Welfare Society.
With barely 22 days left for the conclusion of the current financial year, the funds for the welfare of disabled persons in Rangareddy District have not been utilized to its fullest and there is a possibility of funds being allocated under Economic Rehabilitation Scheme (ERS) may get lapsed without being utilized on time.
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According to the officials of District Welfare Department Rangareddy, the online applications for loans being submitted by the disabled person has not yet reached their domain and above all they are presently busy in sending proposals and reports to the government as there are only 22 days left for the conclusion of the current financial year.
“Atleast 10 to 20 people from every mandal has applied online for loans under Economic Rehabilitation Scheme (ERS) but are completely blank about the present status of the pleas as officials at the helm of affair are not giving them straight dope over the matter. The financial years is about to end in few days while the code on conduct has been imposed due to MLC elections. By the time the council elections ends, the funds may get lapsed without utilization. The government should speed up the process of application and ensure the benefits of Economic Rehabilitation Scheme should reach to disable people,” said President National Platform for the Rights of Disabled (NPRD) Gorenkala Narsimha.
Loan applications under various schemes are pending since 2018-19, he added, saying “Atleast they be benefited under the Economic Rehabilitation Scheme (ERS) as lakhs of disabled persons especially the educated are leaving in a miserable state. Government should allocate Rs.6,000 crore budget for the overall welfare of the disabled people in the state if it is really claiming to be sincere of the development of a marginalized section of the society,” he demanded.
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“The government had allocated a budget of over Rs.4 crore for the year 2001-21 under Economic Rehabilitation Scheme (ERS) and later an additional amount of Rs.84 lakhs have been released that cumulatively narrows down to a total Rs.5.5 crore. We have received about 500 applications under bank linkage and over 100 applications under non-bank linkage scheme from various mandals of Rangareddy district since the month of January. All these applications are under process at various levels and are subjected to scrutiny by the district level authorities. However, we are unable to tell how long it will take to get the applications approved as there are certain parameters to be held while clearing off the pleas,” informed an official of disabled welfare department on the condition of anonymity.
