Job reservation bill in PSUs for disabled introduced in RS

New Delhi: A bill seeking to provide five percent reservation for disabled persons in public sector jobs and reserve seats for them in higher educational institutions was introduced in Rajya Sabha today. It also provides for the setting up of a national commission and a national fund for them.[caption id=“attachment_1378997” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Helping the differently-abled. AFP[/caption] The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2014, which seeks to bring sweeping changes in the earlier bill and broaden the ambit of disability from existing seven to nineteen categories, was introduced amid din by Union Minister Mallikarjun Kharge. CPM, however, demanded that it should be referred to a Standing Committee for further consideration. In December last year, the Union cabinet had approved the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill to replace the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunity Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act of 1995. The bill covers a variety of issues relating to the disabled persons such as physical, mental and multiple disabilities. However, there have been allegations that the new bill does not carry a number of provisions originally put up in the draft bill of 2012. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had in 2009 set up a committee, headed by Sudha Kaul, to draft such a bill. A draft bill was submitted to the ministry in 2011. Later, the ministry released the draft bill 2012 with modifications. As soon as Kharge introduced the bill, Yechury rose to his feet demanding that the bill should be referred to a Standing Committee. Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien said that Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari will look into the demand. The government has maintained that the bill is in consonance with the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which India signed in 2007. Till now, the reservation for the disabled was only 3 per cent in the ratio of 1 per cent each for the physically, visually and hearing-impaired. The new law extends the quota by 2 per cent, covering two new categories — mentally disabled and people with multiple disabilities. PTI