Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thavarchand Gehlot on Thursday approved the establishment of a ‘Regional Rehabilitation Centre’ for differently-abled persons at Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh.
The centre will start functioning from this month itself. Training, professional guidance and rehabilitation facilities will be provided to the differently abled persons.The Union Minister appreciated the Chhattisgarh Government’s schemes for the benefit of physically disabled, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and backward classes.Gehlot also praised the ‘livelihood colleges’ for training the youth for their self-employment and assured the State that the Union Government will assist for skill development of differently abled persons at the colleges.
He hailed the six per cent quota for the differently abled in Chhattisgarh while there is three per cent quota for the differently abled in the rest of the country.Gehlot, who met the Chief Minister at his official residence was given a detailed description of the various schemes of the Social Welfare and Scheduled Caste Development Department of Chhattisgarh Government. The Union Minister assured the State that the Centre will provide all assistance. Gehlot sanctioned Rs2 crore for the proposed ultra-modern braille press in the city.
Special camps will be conducted for the distribution of prosthetic limbs and auxilliary instruments to the differently abled persons from the last week of January to February 15 in all the 27 districts.Medical check-up also will be done at the camps. The goal is to provide assistance to 27,000 differently abled persons in the districts.Women and Child Development and Social Welfare Minister Ramsheela Sahu, School Education and Tribal Development Minister Kedar Kashyap, Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Dr Bhushan lal Jangde, Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand, Additional Chief Secretary D S Misra, Additional Chief Secretary, Home, NK Aswal and Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister N Baijendra Kumar besides other senior officers were present in the meeting.
Gehlot praised the State Government-run Chief Minister Bal Shravan Yojana in which hearing impaired children are provided implants.He assured Rs3 crore financial assistance while promising an assistance of Rs2 crore for the establishment of a school for hearing impaired soon and Rs1.50 crore in two installments. The efforts to rehabilitate the transgenders by the State were also hailed by the Union Minister. The transgenders will be given skill development training soon. The goal is to provide training in skill development to 5,000 disabled persons. The disabled will be provided with a universal identity card.
Chief Minister Raman Singh said that special camps are being conducted at the development block level for certificates to disabled. All the differently abled persons will get these certificates by the end of March 31. Gehlot promised financial assistance for the establishment of post-matric 500-seater hostels in Raipur,Durg, Bilaspur, Rajnandgaon and Raigarh. The nurses’ training programme for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes also came in for praise by the Union Minister. The tribal youth hostel in New Delhi for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward class students to prepare for the competitive exams was a step in the right direction, he said.