Faridkot, May 26
Under the blazing sun when the mercury was hovering over 47 degrees Celsius in the area today, over a hundred visually impaired persons from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh organized a protest rally in which they marched 15 km on foot from Kotkapura to Faridkot town in the afternoon.
Under the banner of the National Federation of Blinds (NFB), these visually impaired persons were staging a protest against their state governments for turning a 'blind eye' to their long pending demands. The demands include implementation of one per cent reservation in government jobs for visually handicapped persons, implementation of reservation in promotions, free education for those who are blind, conversion of 140 posts in the education department, recruitment of the visually handicapped to these posts and effective implementation of Persons with Disability Act, 1996.
"We know it would be difficult to walk in the scorching heat for over five hours on Kotkapura-Faridkot road when the mercury was hovering over 47 degree Celsius, but we had no other option as all our pleas to the governments were getting no response," said Rajesh Mohan, convener, NFB, North Zone.
Today, the protestors submitted their memorandum to Mantar Singh Brar, chief parliamentary secretary (CPS) and the Deputy Commissioner, Faridkot. "We have demanded that the CPS fix our meeting with the Punjab CM. In case we get no response in the coming days, we have plans to organize a massive foot march from Faridkot to Ferozepur and Lambi to Badal village in Muktsar next month," said Rajesh Mohan.
Under section 33 of the Person with Disability Act, 1996, one per cent of the posts of teachers should be filled with blind candidates. But both Punjab and HP governments have blatantly disregarded the rules and denied appointment to eligible candidates, alleged the visually handicapped, who were participating in the foot march.
In Punjab, 182 teachers' posts, 140 in primary and 42 in high schools, for blind persons are lying vacant for a long time. Some time back, the Secretary, Education, sent a proposal to the state government to fill these posts but there was no action. "So, we have decided to stage a foot protest march under the blazing sun. The protest will not disturb others but it would be like penance for us for having an apathetic government," said Rajesh Mohan.
Jage Ram, the convener of the blind federation in HP, said the condition of the visually impaired persons is poor in the hill state. Though the central government had identified 1901 jobs where the blind can be employed, the HP government is yet to fill up these posts.
