Rules under Central Law not framed since Oct 2019
*Report of panel awaited during past many months
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 5: Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is soft-paddling on the identification of posts for the persons with benchmark disabilities and framing of Rules without which benefits of the Central Law cannot be extended to the targeted population.
The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 directly became applicable to Jammu and Kashmir from October 30, 2019 as per the provisions of J&K Reorganization Act, 2019 and the main objective of the law is to empower the persons with disabilities by providing them equal opportunities and accessibility.
Section 101 of the Central Law empowers the Governments of States and Union Territories to frame Rules for carrying out the provisions of the Act and for this exercise time-frame of six months from the date of commencement of the Act has been fixed.
“As per the provision of the Central Law, the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir was supposed to frame Rules within six months from October 30, 2019 when the Reorganization Act came into force. However, till date this exercise has not been completed by the Social Welfare Department”, sources told EXCELSIOR.
They disclosed that delay in this regard is notwithstanding the fact that Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs had several months back shared the draft with the Social Welfare Department. “The delay in finalization of Rules is creating an impediment in actual implementation of the Central Law as Rules act as guiding force for any piece of legislation”, sources said.
Section 33 of the Central Law states: “The appropriate Government shall identify posts in the establishments which can be held by respective category of persons with benchmark disabilities by constituting an expert committee with representation of persons with benchmark disabilities. Moreover, the expert committee will undertake periodic review of the identified posts at an interval not exceeding three years”.
In compliance to this Section of the law, the Government vide Order No.1078 dated November 27, 2020 constituted an Expert Committee comprising Administrative Secretaries of Finance, Social Welfare and General Administration Departments. Even two employees with benchmark disabilities and one member from NGO dealing with persons with disabilities were made members of the committee for better understanding of the issues confronting this section of society.
The committee was assigned the task to identify posts in the establishments which can be held by respective category of persons with benchmark disabilities in respect of the vacancies reserved for the disabled by the Government; to consider the list of the posts (Gazetted and Non Gazetted) identified for persons with disabilities in various departments vide Government Order No. 147-SW of 2014 dated 17.06.2014 for adoption/ modification and to undertake periodic review of the identified posts at an interval not exceeding 03 years.
“However, the committee has not completed the assigned task till date. “In the absence of Rules and identification of posts justice is eluding the persons with benchmark disabilities”, sources said.
Vide Government Order No.147-SW of 2014 several posts were identified in Agriculture Production, Sericulture, Horticulture, Cooperatives, Forest, Fisheries, Finance, General Administration, Health and Medical Education, Higher Education, Home, Hospitality and Protocol, Industries and Commerce, Information, Law Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Planning and Development, Revenue, Rural Development, School Education and Social Welfare Departments for the persons with disabilities.
Section 34 of the Central Law states: “Every appropriate Government shall appoint in every Government establishment, not less than four per cent of the total number of vacancies in the cadre strength in each group of posts meant to be filled with persons with benchmark disabilities of which, one per cent each shall be reserved for persons with benchmark disabilities like blindness and low vision; deaf and hard of hearing and locomotor disability including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy and one percent for autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability and mental illness; multiple disabilities from amongst persons under clauses (a) to (d) including deaf-blindness in the posts identified for each disabilities.
“The Government should complete the exercise as early as possible so that targeted population gets the benefit of the Central Law”, sources stressed.
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