Chief Minister Raghubar Das unveiled the ‘State Policy for Persons with Disabilities’ at the State capital on Friday. He urged Government departments and civil societies to promote the physically challenged denizens. “It is the responsibility of our departments and stakeholders to bring the disabled persons in the mainstream society through an action plan. I hope this policy would benefit the deprived section in utilising their constitutional rights,” said the CM.
Das made a commitment to ensure lift facility in all the Government buildings on the requests made by Social Welfare Minister louis Marandi. He felt the sensitivity towards the category of these people needs to be strengthened. The policy covers district and block level facilities for the physically challenged ones under Health, Education, Social Welfare, Panchayat Raj, Building Construction, Transport, Rural, Agriculture, Sports, Drinking Water and Sanitation as well as Art and Culture departments.
Each of the mentioned department has been instructed to implement their responsibilities. It was a joyous moment for the hundreds of disabled youngsters participating from various districts like Bokaro, Ranchi, lohardaga and Jamshedpur.
Golu Kumar, a visually impaired cricketer who was among the Team India players to bag the trophy of Cricket World Cup for the Blind last year said the policy is a ray of hope in fulfilling the basic requirements of residents like him.
Similarly, students of Government Deaf and Dumb School at Harmu expressed their happiness over the launch. International Deaf and Dumb Footballer Md Sajid from Jamshedpur shared his excitement about the policy with the school students in sign language. It was a celebration time even for the guardians and teachers of such children. “The policy will work as a motivational tool for our fraternity,” said teacher Narayan Prasad, a teacher of Government Blind School, Harmu.
However, the recent state players who bagged the Asia Cup for Physically Challenged were unaware about the policy. In order to get support from state government, they had met the CM on March 11. “Social Welfare department Principal Secretary Mridula Sinha asked us to be present in today’s function. But, they did not inform the purpose. Moreover, except us all the disabled achievers were felicitated by CM. We were ignored. It was not justified,” said players Mukesh and Bipul.