Sunday, July 5, 2009

Why disabled don't get bus passes in Tamil Nadu?

Chennai, July 5: Tamil Nadu Social Welfare department has missed out on one thing according to at least two disability rights groups in the state. The department which had given exemptions on income ceiling for 12 welfare programmes has overlooked one of the most important schemes for the disabled. The income ceiling of Rs.12,000 per annum for availing local bus passes for the physically challenged is not done away with yet.

“We have been expecting that the state government would do away with the income ceiling for bus passes. But we were shocked to see that there was no mention of income ceiling exemption for the bus passes,” said K.Gopinath, a member of the Tamil Nadu disability welfare board.

Federation of Tamil Nadu Physically Handicapped Associations has also expressed shock over the apparent ‘oversight’ by the social welfare ministry. “Almost all the disability rights groups have been lobbying for the removal of the ceiling to avail local bus passes for several years. The ceiling of Rs.12,000 was fixed by a G.O in 1996. Revenue officials do not give income certificates for less than Rs.24,000 now,” said P.Simmachandran, state general secretary of the federation.

State social welfare minister P.Geetha Jeevan admits that it was an ‘oversight.’ “We definitely wanted to include exemption of ceiling for local bus passes for the disabled. I will try to correct it,” she assured when contacted by CBC.

Local bus passes are a great means to the mobility of the physically challenged across the state. As transport officials stick to the 1996 G.O that has fixed the income ceiling at Rs.12,000 to provide bus passes and the revenue officials refuse to give income certificates for less than Rs.24,000, thousands of disabled find it difficult to obtain their local bus passes.



Saturday, April 25, 2009