JAGATSINGHPUR: Even as the Centre and the state government have stressed providing unique disability ID (UDID) to the differently-abled, it has not been implemented properly in the district due to lack of awareness and apathy of the administration.
UDID was implemented in 2016 with the aim of creating a national database for persons with disability for issuing unique identity cards to them.
The project is also aimed at streamlining the tracking of physical and financial progress of beneficiaries at all levels of hierachy of its implementation - from village to national level.
However, the project seems to have hit a road block in the district. As many as 5,066 digital applications were received from across the district in the portal of which 3,055 are still pending.
Ramesh Chandra Sahoo of Bajpur village in Jagatsinghpur block said he had obtained a certificate, generated manually, for the handicapped in 2014 but is unaware of UDID and its benefits.
There are others who have registered online and even after six months, are yet to get the UDID.
The state government had launched the UDID project in 2017 and accordingly, an advisory was issued to all officials concerned to ensure its implementation.
However, shortage of specialists in the district headquarters hospital, absence of coordination between the Health and Family Welfare and Social Security department and negligence of the district administration have marred the effective implementation of the project in the district.
The district disability board, consisting of specialists in psychiatry, orthopaedics, ENT, eye, medicine and neurology was constituted to conduct tests to check the degree of disability of the differently-abled.
After conducting the tests, the board issues disability certificate free of cost and recommends the registration of the differently-abled with the UDID link.
However, the board did not function from February to October last year due to absence of specialists as a result of which, a large number of applications are still pending with it.
Meanwhile, Jagatsinghpur Collector Sangram Keshari Mohapatra, after a review, detected large number of irregularities in issuing digital UDID card to the differently-abled.
He has directed the Chief District Medical Officer to ensure that the medical board sits at least four days in a month to clear pending applications.
District Social Security Officer Abdul Wahid Khan said despite frequent reminders to the BDOs and sarpanchs, nothing has been done to create awareness on the project.
He said steps are being taken to make the differently-abled aware of their rights.