Scores of differently-abled people under the aegis of Divyang Kranti Andolan Sangharsh Samiti 2016 Uttarakhand observed the World Disabled Day as black day on Saturday, staging a protest rally at Parade Ground against the State Government’s perceived indifference to their long-pending demands.
Moreover, the protesters boycotted Divyang Mahotsav being organized by the state government. They protested while tying black bands on their arms outside the venue of the programme at Parade Ground.
Amit Dobhal, a protester, alleged that the Harish Rawat government has been taking them for a ride. “We are sad and anguished over the state government remaining apathetic regarding our demands. This, despite the fact that we have met the CM several times. CM seems to be announcing things without showing the least will to act on them. For instance, despite the Government Order (GO) on the formation of a commission, no headway has been made so far. Till now no office has been allotted to it nor has any infrastructure been put into place. There is neither any budgetary provision nor any effort to give it a constitutional status. This is unfortunate,” he said.
Another of the protestors, Sonia Arora said that the state government is cramming the committee meant to cater to their interests with people from the ruling Congress. “Only one from our association Sandeep Arora has been included in the committee. We would stage protest rallies outside the Assembly unless the state government meets our demands of rightly empowering the divyang commission, ensuring end of the discrimination being meted out to us and effecting a hike in the pension amounts we are receiving from the state government ,” she said.