Do not bring ordinance on Disability Rights Bill: CCPD to PM
Business Standard
Press Trust of India | New Delhi February 28, 2014 Last Updated at
17:28 IST
http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/do-not-bring-ordinance-
on-disability-rights-bill-ccpd-to-pm-114022800890_1.html
Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (CCPD) today opposed any
move by the government to bring an ordinance to safeguard the rights of
people with disabilities saying it fails on standards set by the United
Nations on the issue.
"A large number of disability rights activists found the Bill to
fail on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities (CRPD) standard and consequently the chairperson of the Rajya
Sabha referred the Bill to a House Committee," said P K Pincha, CCPD, in a
letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The letter comes in the midst of reports that the government is planning to
bring an ordinance even as the Rights to Persons with Disabilities Bill
2014, is pending in the Rajya Sabha which has referred it to the Standing
Committee for improvement.
The Bill was introduced in January, in fulfillment of the country's
commitment to bring a law in conformity with the CRPD which India has since
ratified.
Pincha said subsequently several rumours started to float that the
government intends to bring the bill in the shape of an ordinance, which was
problematic because disability rights is not an unoccupied legislative
field.
The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and
Full Participation) Act, 1995 already controls the area. If the bill of 2014
is promulgated as ordinance, it cannot become operable unless the Act of
1995 is repealed, said Pincha, who was the first person with disability to
have been appointed as the CCPD in December 2011. He is visually disabled
since birth.
"I am writing to urge your office to issue a statement that the proposed
ordinance only aims to amend the Act of 1995 and not to enact the Disability
Rights Bill of 2014.
"This statement from your office will restore peace and assuage the tempers
of highly agitated community and also give out a clear message to the
international community that India is totally sworn to its international
commitments," he said.
The Office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities has been
mandated to take steps to safeguard the rights of persons with disabilities.
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