Visually impaired stage protest over backlog recruitment

Irked over the non-fulfillment of their long pending demand of backlog recruitment in various government departments, the Blind Persons Association, Himachal Pradesh, today staged a protest outside the Secretariat and tried to block the Chotta Shimla-Sanjauli road, disrupting traffic movement for hours.

To express their resentment with the government, the protesters marked the International Day for Persons with Disabilities as “black day”.

The protesters also had a minor scuffle with the police personnel who tried to remove them from the road. Later, they had an argument with Shimla (Urban) Subdivisional Magistrate (SDM) Oshin Sharma, who had reached the spot to pacify the protesters.

Rajesh Thakur, a protester, said the visually impaired had been demanding backlog recruitment for a long time and protesting for over 700 days, but the state government was not accepting their demands.

“Thousand of posts reserved for visually impaired remain vacant in government departments, but the state government is not willing to employ us, which is very shameful,” he said.

“We have decided to intensify our movement against the state government and will stage a massive rally and a protest on December 10 by calling visually impaired persons from across the state. We will call off the protest only if we are called for a meeting before December 10. If nothing happens by December 10, we will proceed to gherao the CM’s official residence and will immolate ourselves,” he said.

Thakur added that whenever they intensified their movement, the government assured them of considering their demands, but no action was taken to fulfil their demands later.

He alleged that instead of starting backlog recruitment, the state government has discontinued the SAHARA scheme and UDID bus pass for the persons with disabilities.