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Ranchi, Sept. 26: A delegation of visually challenged persons today urged social welfare minister Vimla Pradhan to help improve their living conditions during a janata durbar at the BJP office.
They complained that neither books in Braille script nor self-employment training plans were available, while lamenting limited representation in government jobs.
“Visually challenged persons coming to Ranchi from faraway places for work have no place to stay. There is no public transport system for them either. As a result, they are compelled to flee to other parts of the state,” said Mahendra Sharma, the president of Jharkhand Upekshit Drishtihin Sangh.
Pradhan said the government was running a school for the visually challenged in Ranchi and that the state’s new policy on the physically challenged would also safeguard their interests. The cabinet has already passed the policy.
The minister promised to explore possibilities of setting up a Braille printing press.
She was, however, taken aback when one Dolly Devi of Railway Market in Hatia complained that an influential man in the locality was harassing her. She urged the minister to bail her out.
According to the complainant, one Rajendra Singh was constantly mounting pressure on her through various means to vacate the house she was staying in.
He allegedly locked her house and when she approached the local police station, the officials refused to register her complaint. Then she went to the women’s police station, where the personnel were forthcoming enough to help break the locks of her house.
But the threats from Singh have not stopped, Dolly Devi told Pradhan, who immediately rang up the SP and directed him to take action.
Tarun Puran of Bundu, who has faced trouble from neighbours, sought the minister’s intervention to set up a lane to his house. He complained that his neighbours had encroached upon land meant for common thoroughfares, due to which he was unable to reach his house even on foot.
Raj Kishore Mahto of Nawadih demanded a compensatory job, arguing that his grandfather had donated land to a school. Pradhan promised to talk to her HRD counterpart Baidyanath Ram.
“We received over 32 applications dealing with a range of issues,” said BJP leader Gama Singh.
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