CHENNAI: From relaxing some of the contentious conditions to removing some restrictions, the State government on Saturday met the key demands put forth by the diffabled, bringing an end to the agitations they have been staging for the past four days.
The degree of disability required for getting monthly financial assistance of Rs 1,000 would be reduced from 60 per cent to 40 per cent, while the condition they should be a destitute to get monthly assistance would be removed. At present, a person should not have assets above Rs 50,000 and he/she should not have any son or daughter who are Above Poverty Line or spouse.
“I have great satisfaction in making these announcements on the concluding day of the 14th Assembly,” said Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, making a suo motu statement under Rule 110 in the State Assembly. She also gave a long list of measures being implemented by her government for diffabled welfare.
A State-level committee headed by Social Welfare Minister B Valarmathi would monitor implementation of various welfare schemes for the PwD, and to advise the government, Jayalalithaa added.
The announcement brought the curtains down on the four-day long agitations by the four organisations - the Tamil Nadu Assn for the Rights of All Types of Differently Abled & Caregivers (TARATDAC), December 3 Movement, National Federation of the Blind-NFB and Tamil Nadu State Federation of the Deaf. “On behalf of the United Movement of the Disabled Rights Associations, we welcome the government’s announcement,” S Namburajan, general secretary, TARATDAC, said in a statement here.
Speaking in the assembly, Jayalalithaa said the government had been strictly adhering to the three per cent reservation for PwD and as many as 5,633 diffabled had been given employment in government and public sector undertakings since 2011. She noted that a committee headed by the chief secretary had been monitoring the implementation of this reservation.