BHUBANESWAR: Many persons with autism, cerebral palsy, and other intellectual disabilities have been awaiting appointment of their legal guardians, who would provide them personal care and look after their properties, for as long as eight years as many of the district collectors are yet to dispose of their applications for legal guardianship certificates.
On Monday, the SSEPD department asked collectors of 16 districts to dispose of the applications at the earliest. Persons with the four disabilities are covered under the ambit of National Trust Act, 1999. It provides for the constitution of local-level committees headed by district collectors to issue legal guardianship certificates to the persons.
Under it, the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation (Intellectual Disability) and Multiple Disabilities, an autonomous body under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, forms the committees to look into the entire process of applications, processing and appointment of legal guardians or issue of legal guardianship certificates.
The process has been made online since 2016. Despite the National Trust urging the collectors for timely disposal of legal guardianship certificates, at least 77 applications are pending at the collector level since 2018 in the state. Recently, the deputy director of National Trust Rajesh Sachdeva had also asked the collectors to dispose of the applications by holding the committee meetings once in every quarter as per the section 13 (4) of the National Trust Act, 1999.