Bhubaneswar, Dec 31: Odisha government has stressed focusing on conforming to disability reservation norms in all government PSUs and education for the differently able persons in the State.
Chief Secretary AP Padhi has directed officials of Social Security & Empowerment of Persons with Disability ( SS&EPD) Department to focus on conforming to disability reservation norms in all Government Publlic Sector Undertakings and education of the differently abled children.
He directed the officials to prepare a definite action plan for high cost appliances support at an early age.
Notably, the differently able population in Odisha as per 2011 Census is around 12,44,402 among whom visually impaired are around 2,63,799, hearing impaired are 2,37,858, speech impaired are 68,517, orthopedically impaired are 2,59,899, mentally retarded are 72,399, persons suffering from mental illness are 42,837, persons with multiple disability are 1,26,212 and around 1,72,881 are the victim of other disabilities.
Three Appellate Medical Boards one each at Govt Medical Colleges & Hospitals at Cuttack, Berhampur and Burla have been also constituted.
Various schemes like Bhimabhoi-Bhinna Khyama Samarthya Yojana, Special Aids & Appliances from State Budget, High Cost Assertive Devices & Corrective Surgeries with CSR support, Sougamya Bharat Scheme, travel concession, club foot clinics etc have been rolled out. Grant–in-Aid have also been provided to 51 number of special schools for differently able children.
Nearly 40,078 such children have been covered under Banishree Scholarship, 2,135 covered under Pre-Matric Scholarship and 773 covered under Post-Matric scholarship .
Besides, 3700 students in special schools have been provided school uniforms, and class 6th students have been provided free laptop along with voice recorder.
For providing employment opportunities to differently able persons, provisions have been made for 3 per cent reservation in State PSU and Contractual posts. DRI loan has been provided to 2,797 persons during 2014-15. Around 3,12, 945 persons have been covered under disability pension schemes like MBPY and IGNDP.