Govt. plans 3 p.c. job quota for disabled

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, JAN. 10. The Chief Minister, Mr. S.M. Krishna, today said that the State Government would make it mandatory for all public buildings to have separate access and toilets for the disabled.

He told presspersons here that directions would be issued to the departments concerned to ensure that when building plans were sanctioned, provision for separate access and toilets for the disabled was incorporated.

Prior to the press conference, the Chief Minister met the chief executive officers (CEOs) and representatives of 32 Information Technology companies. The meeting was organised jointly by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) and Cybermedia to sensitise the CEOs to the issue of disability and the requirements of the disabled.

Mr. Krishna regretted that though Parliament had passed an Act in 1995 on the issue of disability, not many State governments had taken steps to implement the legislation.

The Karnataka Government, he said, would work seriously towards implementing the provision for three per cent reservation in jobs for the disabled. A data bank on the disabled would be created.

He said that special laboratories would be set up in six schools in Bangalore and Mysore to train the disabled in Information Technology and related areas, and corporates and non- governmental organisations would be associated with the project.

The Executive Director of NCPEDP, Mr. Javed Abidi, said the second ``IT Round-table'' held today was aimed at sensitising the CEOs, not about job reservation, but on the need to provide equal opportunities to the disabled.

He said there were approximately 60 million to 70 million persons in the country who were disabled and that over seven million of them were in need of jobs. So far, only about one million had been provided employment during the past 40 years.

To tackle various issues related to disability and, more importantly, to bring it on the agenda of corporates, the NCPEDP and Cybermedia, along with the State Government, would set up a forum to chalk out a detailed action plan.

It was time the country thought about developing and using technology which would help disabled people. Assistive devices, software development, and accessibility and availability of technology were required, he said.

Mr. Pradeep Gupta of Cybermedia said that the IT sector, which was growing rapidly, had tremendous employment opportunities and disability was not a stumbling block.

It was time to work out a strategy to ensure the recruitment of disabled people in this sector and the companies which participated in today's meeting were very receptive to the idea, he added.

The IT Secretary, Mr. Vivek Kulkarni, said that the Government planned to provide computers in many of the 70 schools for the disabled in the State with the help of corporates.

The NCPEDP has an action plan which includes identifying jobs, campaigning for legislation that will make it mandatory for all future establishments to be accessible and disabled-friendly, and promoting self-employment by making available loans at low rates of interest.

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Section  : Southern States
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