VELLORE: The District’s Differently-abled Welfare Office has opened a help desk at Vellore collectorate exclusively for differently-abled persons, to educate them on various welfare schemes and extend a helping hand to ensure they avail of the benefits through government schemes.
The help desk will be stationed in front of the Quaid-E- Millath public grievance hall on Mondays. The objective of the help desk is to facilitate the differently-abled with their petitions, in distributing applications of various welfare schemes and in educating them about schemes.
“Around 30 to 40 differently-abled persons from remote villages of the district attend grievance day meetings, to submit applications regarding various issues. They are paying Rs 20 to Rs 30 each to writers for writing their petitions. So, we have come up with a special application for the differently-abled. It will be filled by the persons in the help desk free of cost,” said district differently-abled officer Jospeh D Ravi.
The department will engage a staff along with two volunteers in the help desk. “They will create awareness about welfare schemes and give them the applications for the schemes. They will also explain the differently-abled persons about the documents that should be attached along with the applications. It will avoid unnecessary delays in availing the welfare assistance,” he said. The department will put up a flex board announcing the establishment of a help-desk in front of the collectorate from next week, to ensure that the differently-abled make use of the facility. “It will save them time and money,” Jospeh D Ravi further said.
The help desk was inaugurated by Collector R Nanthagopal. On the occasion, he also handed over retrofitted two-wheelers, each worth Rs 55,790 to seven beneficiaries.
Hearing Aids Given
Tiruvannamalai: As many as 25 disabled students received hearing aids from Collector A Gnanasekaran during the grievance day meeting held at the collectorate here on Monday.
On behalf of the disabled welfare department, the Collector distributed the hearing aids worth Rs 1.08 lakh to the 25 school students.