Four special children from the city who have qualified for the 2013 Special Olympics, the international competition for persons with intellectual disabilities, received Rs. 20,000 each from the District Collector on Monday. The students who were apprehensive about participating in the international event due to shortage of resources, were given assistance to help them make it to the event in Australia this November.
District Collector Jayashree Muralidharan distributed the assistance from the collector’s discretionary fund to the students of Asha Deepam and Blossom Special Schools, at the public grievances meeting here at the collectorate. All four children have mild or moderate mental retardation. In the last edition of the Special Olympics at Athens, seven athletes from Tiruchi, represented India and brought home a rich haul of medals. In addition, seven persons also received Rs.50,000 for a chance at self-employment. The Collector also passed orders for 16 persons including widows and farmers to avail assistance under the social defence scheme.
A total of 643 petitions were received on Monday. These included appeals for free house patta and patta transfer, requests for employment and ration card, old age pension, differently abled pension and various basic amnesties.
