About 170 disabled persons were provided with various assistive devices by the Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment D. Napoleon at Perambalur on Wednesday.
The disabled persons were provided various assistive devices such as tri-cycles, wheel chairs, hearing aids, artificial limbs and Braille watches depending on their requirement. The devices were provided to 149 beneficiaries through the LANCO Foundation, Hyderabad and another 20 were given the same by the Department of Disabled Rehabilitation.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Napoleon said there were 2.19 crore disabled persons in the country. Since the process of providing assistive devices to all of them would take some time, steps were being taken to provide the devices with the help of voluntary organisations. Disabled persons, who had petitioned him last month, were provided with the assistive devices on Wednesday, he said.
Mr. Napoleon also distributed various other welfare assistance to the beneficiaries. In all, about 650 persons, including the 170 disabled persons, were provided with Rs. 50.41 lakh worth of assistance on the occasion.
Collector M. Vijayakumar, M. Rajkumar, MLA,and others spoke.
Mr. Napoleon also presented free television colour television sets to 1176 beneficiaries at Irur village in Alathur Panchayat Union and declared open a seed storage godown built at a cost of Rs.11 lakh at Perambalur.
