Disability re-assessment plan hits hurdle

Faridkot, February 10

The state government’s move to re-assess the disability of over 11,000 PwD (persons with disability) government employees from PGI, Chandigarh, has hit a hurdle as the authorities there expressed their helplessness in conducting physical examination of the employees. PGI authorities have suggested the government that the verification of these employees’ certificates from should be done by the issuing authorities or from Civil Surgeon offices at the district level.

In a move to reportedly check the genuineness of the PwD certificates issued in the state, the government had asked the PwD employees to get examined at PGI.

As no schedule had been provided to the employees to go to PGI for the re-assessment, many employees had approached the PGI, seeking the schedule, said Sanjay Dhaka, a government teacher who received a copy of a letter that PGI had written to the Department of Social Security and Development of Women and Children (Disability Cell).

In the letter, authorities wrote that the physical re-verification at PGI was very inconvenient for employees and instead of this, they should approach the issuing authority of their respective district civil hospitals.

Due to the shortage of manpower, the members of the special medical board in PGI have to spend invaluable time for evaluating the disability of the employees, along with the ever-increasing number of patients in OPD. Verification of certificates virtually means complete re-evaluation of the disability. And it will be a heavy burden on the doctors to verify such certificates which have not been issued by PGI.

More over the disability certificates are being issued online under UDID portal and as per UDID portal procedure, certificate of disability can only be obtained from the district medical authority, reads the letter.