Telangana High Court has instructed the State government to examine if it is possible to earmark exclusive funds to support physically challenged persons facing difficulties during the lockdown.
Hearing a PIL petition filed by lawyer Ganesh Karnati on the plight of differently-abled persons in lockdown, the HC underscored the importance of providing adequate funds to redress their grievances. A bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy said “...the best efforts of the government cannot succeed while tackling the difficulties and problems of physically challenged persons without proper funding”.
The petitioner’s lawyer K. Pavan Kumar, during the previous hearing, sought a direction to government to comply with the ‘Comprehensive Disability Inclusive Guidelines’ issued by the Centre following the lockdown for the protection of differently-abled persons. The government filed a compliance report after the bench gave an interim direction.
Citing the report, the lawyer said the helpline created by the government for physically challenged persons received only 59 calls in the densely populated Rangareddy district. This proved the helpline number was not known to many physically challenged persons, the lawyer said. He urged the court to instruct the government to provide adequate funds to officials looking after the welfare of differently-abled persons.
Advocate General B.S. Prasad sought time to inform the court if the government was in a position to create separate funds for them. The bench said its earlier direction to government was to provide wide publicity of the helpline number meant for physically challenged persons. The matter was posted to May 18 for next hearing.
