From the States

New Delhi: No respite despite flying colors.....

Having cleared the country’s most arduous yet coveted examinations, the Civil Services, three hearing impaired individuals continue to wait for allotment of posts, earmarked for the disabled.

The Prime Minister had issued orders to reserve three percent of the IAS jobs in Civil Services Examination (CSE) for persons with physical disabilities in January 2006. However, this has had little effect.

Salma Fahim, Abhijeet  Charkaraborty  and Maniram Sharma found their names in the final list of selected candidates but were not able to join their colleagues at the Lal Bahadur Shatri National Academy of Administration in Mussorie.

“These candidates have a certificate by the government‘s medical board, yet the DoPT failed to allot them the services that they are eligible for. It is a pity that the DoPT chooses to ignore the medical certificate, which is given by government doctors and insists on their own medical test,” said disabled rights activist Javed Abidi.

Pointing out that the DoPT has refused to accept the medical certification of their disability and opted to go by the “medical test” conducted first in the Safdurjung Hospital and then at the Ram Manohar Lohia, Mr Abidi said, “It has become imperative for us to know what this medical test is.”

“Maniram’s hearing is totally impaired, and the D category and he is entitled to a post, but the DoPT does not think so. Salma’s medical certification says that her impairment degree is 75% percent but the DoPT insists that it is only 38 percent, 2 percent less than the mandatory 40 percent, now her case has been referred to a technical committee. In the case of Abhijeet, he has been declared “D” whereas he comes under the ‘PD’ category,” said Mr Abidi.

Instances of such unfairness abounds despite a provision for persons with disabilities such as low vision or blindness, hearing impairments and cerebral palsy, to be allotted the IAS apart from other services.

In 2003 Rigzian and Lokesh, trainees for the Indian Information Service cadre had complained of discrimination because of their disability, the same year Ravi Kumar who secured the 325th rank in the general category despite his low vision was considered unfit for “all services” by the DoPT.

Source by: Hearing Impaired candidates allege harassments, Publication: The Tribune New Delhi, 05 Oct 2006