Association of visually impaired people holds protest in Shimla

A minor scuffle broke out between police personnel and members of the Blind Persons Association, Himachal Pradesh, during the latter’s protest against the state government for allegedly not fulfilling their long-pending demand of backlog recruitment.

Hundreds of members, associated with the association, reached outside the premises of the Himachal Pradesh Secretariat and raised slogans against the state government. During the protest, they also blocked the road which disrupted the traffic movement on the Sanjauli-Chotta Shimla road for half an hour. The scuffle broke out when the police tried to remove the protesters from the site.

Rajesh Thakur, one of the protesters, said the state government was not paying heed to their demands. “We have been protesting for nearly a year. However, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu is not listening to our demands. We have only received assurances and nothing has been done by the government to fulfill our demands.”

He further said that the association would continue with its protest until their demands were met. “We want a written response from the state government,” he added.

Apart from backlog recruitments, the blind persons have been seeking reservation and promotion for them to them as promised in a notification issued by the government in 2021 and extension of the retirement age of all specially-abled persons to 60.