Centre to states: Form advisory boards for welfare of Divyangs

New Delhi: The Central Advisory Board on Disability on Thursday asked states and Union Territories to submit a report on affirmative actions taken by them for the welfare of differently-abled people

during the Covid-19 pandemic and urged them to appoint commissioners and constitute state advisory boards at the earliest.

In the fourth meeting of the board under the chairmanship of Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot, the states/UTs were advised to create an online mechanism for maintaining data related to vacancies reserved for persons with benchmark disabilities in a transparent manner and also conduct special recruitment drive to fill up backlog vacancies, if any.

The board advised all the central ministries/departments to take effective steps to implement the Accessible India Campaign on mission mode and finalise the

accessible standards in respect of their sector(s) in consultation with the chief commissioner for persons with disabilities within six months and submit it to the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities for notification, the statement said.

Other matters deliberated upon in the meeting included issues in the disability sector like implementation of the RPwD Act, 2016, Accessible India Campaign and Unique Disability ID Project.

Early intervention and rehabilitation of children with disabilities, measures taken by the states/UTs for protection and welfare of people with disabilities (PwD) during the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring distribution of aids and assistive devices among differently-abled people and implementation of the provision of reservation for persons with benchmark disabilities

were also discussed, the statement said.

At the meeting, MoS Social Justice Krishan Pal Gurjar and vice-chairman of the Board were also present.