COIMBATORE:Acting on the orders of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (CCPD), the Ministry of Human Resource Development has directed educational institutions to ensure that disabled-friendly examination centres are provided for differently-abled candidates.
The CCPD, which has the power of a civil court, had issued the order in July on the petition of Kuldeep Singh Birania, a person with disability, seeking disabled-friendly examination centres. As per the order, the person in charge of a centre for an examination, for recruitment or admission, may be informed of candidates with disabilities. Specific arrangements, including seats on the ground floor, should be made for them.
If this cannot be done when seats are allotted online, the person in charge should be clearly informed of the need for adjustments or re-allocation of seats to accommodate such candidates in easily accessible places. The arrangement must be made well before the examination begins to avoid harassment or discrimination that could disturb them from concentrating on the examination, it said.
The CCPD observed that many candidates with disabilities were allocated places or seats which were not accessible to users of wheelchairs, calipers or crutches. It ordered that the authorities should ensure that candidates with disabilities are not deprived of their legitimate rights.
Following the order, the Ministry of Human Resource Development wrote to apex bodies regulating higher education to ensure that the order is implemented.
Welcoming the order, Coimbatore District Differently Abled Welfare Association president A Kanniappan, said, “Differently-abled candidates often face great difficulty in climbing staircases. Due to such problems some do not attend examinations. This order will motivate them to write such examinations and excel in their career”.
He added that based on a Supreme Court order, the Centre had recently taken steps to ensure implementation of three percent reservation for differently-abled persons.