Dear Mukeshji, This is amazing! Govt Departments and officials repeatedly violate rules and provisions that your Ministry and you lay down for the levelling of the playing field. What just happened to Mohib on the 10th of May is terrible. A person prepares for the whole year and on the day of the exam an ignorant fool tells him that he is not allowed to use a scribe. This is not the first time such violation of rights is happening. It happens all the time, whether it while writing exams/ booking of a Railway ticket/ implementing the job reservation in Govt and PSUs/ school admissions and the like. The person with disability is doubly violated by such occurrences.
No point in talking of accessible India, equal opportunities and so on if Govt officials are not trained and their understanding of disability is not corrected. The PWD Act was passed in 1995. 20 years are long enough for people to know how to implement the various clauses. Please read the below mail and tell me if the narrative does not frustrate you. Can we think of doing something about this at a macro level? Thanks for your attention and I am sorry for this emotional outburst. Regards, George -----Original Message----- From: AccessIndia [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mohib Anwar Rafay Sent: 11 May 2015 17:59 To: accessindia Subject: [AI] Again gross violation of right of equal opportunity for visually impaired Hey all, yesterday(10th of May 2015) I was having my PCS priliminary exam conducted by Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission. But I was not allowed to appear in the exam just on the basis of erroneous, fallacious and arbitrary conclusions drawn by examination in-charge of that particular center. When I entered into the examination hall along with my writer, the examination in charge asked me to firnish my documents pertaining to my disability. I handed over my disability certificate for his perusal. After close examination of my disability certificate, he told me that since your disability is merely 70%, hence you are not eligible to avail the service of the scribe. According to him the writer are allowed only to those candidates who are 100% blind and not less than that. I was shocked after listening his conclusions, I enquired him that on which basis you can say so, do you have any written rule? He said that I have instructions from the public service commission. On my insistency he called one of his seniors (the representative of UP PSC) and confirmed me that only totally blind are allowed to use the scribe. After lots of arguments, I asked him to give me in writing under his seal that he is denying me for appearing in the examination on the basis that only candidates with 100% blindness are allowed to avail the service of the scribe. Accordingly he gave me this thing in writing after confirming his superior authority. After that I made a police report of violating various provisions of Persons disability Act and acting in access to powers granted him by the commission. The police officer interrogated the examination in-charge for half an our and asked him to produce any written rule which provide that only 100% blind are allowed to use the scribe. But he showed only the rule which provide that "netra heen abhiyarthio ko lekhak ki swidha di jayegi", the facility of the scribe will be provided to the blind candidates. He was arguing that netra heen mean who can not see, since you have 70% disability, you are not netra heen. I told him that only word "netra heen"(blind) has been used and not "poorn netra heen"(complete blind). More over sec 2 of Persons with disability Act provides the definition of the blind which include the partial absance of the sight too. But he didn't agree and finally I was deprived of equal opportunity for appearing in the examination. -- Mohib Anwar Rafay Phone: +919 555 555 765 / +9192 7879 0000 Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessin dia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list.. Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
