‘Provide relief through DDRO’

Members of the Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of All Types of Differently Abled and Caregivers on Tuesday staged a protest at the District Collectorate on Tuesday for their demands to be addressed.

They wanted the Central and State governments to disburse differently abled welfare assistance only through the district differently abled rehabilitation office(DDRO), provide assistance to all those who had differently abled identity cards, continue giving monthly assistance that was recently stopped, pay Rs. 3,000 to those whose disability percentage was between 39 and 80 and Rs. 5,000 to those with 80 per cent-plus disability, issue licenses to those orthopedically disabled and provide one identity card for the differently abled that was acceptable across departments, both Central and State.

Special Correspondent from Udhagamandalam adds:
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Differently abled persons staged a demonstration opposite the District Collectorate here on Tuesday. It was organised by various associations including the Tamil Nadu Differently Abled and Helpers Welfare Forum, the Mahatma Gandhi Differently Abled and Public Welfare Sangam, and the Pudhiya Puyal Centre for the Differently Abled.

The demonstration was to draw the attention of the government to the demands and grievances of the members.

Speaking to

The Hindu, Coordinator A. Sathar Babu said that they should be given free bus passes to travel all over the State. The monthly assistance, bank loans, educational aid etc should be routed through the District Differently Abled Welfare Office. Differently abled persons who do not have houses should be made beneficiaries of the Tamil Nadu government’s green house scheme. The conditions for getting four-wheel scooters should be relaxed. The District Collector should conduct monthly grievances redress meeting exclusively for differently abled persons. Eligible persons should be made government employees, he said.