‘TS Govt providing assistive devices free’

PNS | Hyderabad

Minister for Minority and Disabled Welfare Koppula Eshwar on Wednesday hailed Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for quadrupling the budget for the disabled welfare department to Rs 83 crore and pointed out that under the present government assistive devices were being provided free with 100% subsidy.

He was speaking at a function organized by the Department for Welfare of Disabled & Senior Citizens at Malakpet.The programme was conducted in memory of Louis Braille, originator of the Braille script for the visually impaired, on his 214th birth anniversary. A nine-foot bronze statue of Louis Braille was installed by the Minister to mark the occasion.

Minister Koppula Eshwar  said:”Our CM K Chandrasekhar Rao is thinking from a humanitarian perspective and is spending crores of funds for the welfare of the disabled and bringing light to their lives. We are providing a pension of Rs 3,000 to the disabled, spending Rs 2,000 crore annually on 5.51 lakh disabled people in our state. Earlier under the joint regime, assistive devices were provided with only 30 per cent subsidy, but now many assistive devices are provided at free of cost with 100 percent subsidy. We are also happy to announce that the budget of the disabled welfare department has been increased from Rs 20 crore to Rs 83 crore.

The Minister said: “Louis Braille is hailed as the pioneer of blind people. He overcame his blindness with self-confidence and perseverance and created the Braille script for the blind. He proved that a man can achieve anything if he has a clear goal, plan, discipline, determination, perseverance and hard work.”

The Minister honoured awardees in various categories like Best Principal, Best Bank Manager and Best Teacher, among others. He also gave away laptops to persons with disabilities pursuing higher education.

Louis Braille was a French Educator who invented a tactile system of reading and writing for the blind and visually impaired in 1824.The system is called Braille, which is used worldwide and remains virtually unchanged to this day.

Home Minister Mahamood Ali and Chairman of Vikalangula Corporation, Dr. K Vasudeva Reddy, JMD Shailaja, GM Prabhanjan Rao and representatives of many disabled associations participated in this programme.