Visually Impaired Academia Urges CM To Provide Facilities

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Oct, 2021 ) :Punjab Blind Professors and Lectures Association (PBPLA) President Professor Mohammad Tahir Sunday requested the Punjab Chief Minister to provide the differently abled professors serving in various colleges of the province their entitled facilities and allowances halted by the quarters concerned.

In his message on the World White Cane Safety Day 2021 marked every year on October 15, the PBPLA president told APP that these demands were already being presented before former governments time to time but no heed was ever paid.

"But we anticipate for good gestures from the Chief Minister due to his kind heart and nice thinking regarding differently abled persons," Professor Tahir said.

He informed that the sum of Rs 2000 under the head of special conveyance allowance was very insufficient during current age and requested to increase the same up to Rs 10,000 so that the physically challenged persons may be able to avail comparatively safer transport facilities to approach their working places.

The PBPLA president told that all these requests were raised in the application written to the Chief Minister. He noted that all of the employees working in special education department were getting special allowance equal to their full basic pay.

"Even the normal people working in that department have also been blessed with this allowance despite the fact that those normal employees do not genuinely deserve it," he said and regretted that on the contrary the disabled employees have to face much greater issues, while working in general education.

"The CM has also been urged to increase the existing special allowance to the level of full basic pay for all the disabled professors and lecturers. This increase will not put any considerable burden on the national exchequer as the special persons are very small in number," he underlined.

Moreover, he said, the CM was also requested to issue an order for the grant of (pay-protection) including the consideration of service under contract terms, as regular service as special case to only those disabled professors and lecturers, working in Higher Education department, who were selected by PPSC on contract basis and they were regularized from time to time, during the previous years.

Professor Tahir informed that the CM Punjab was also requested to direct quarters concerned for the allotment of official residence to disabled employees on priority basis alongwith the provision of laptops as they had to rely almost exclusively upon computer and computer based gaits, especially in connection with the scanning and reading of books and other reading material.

While elaborating the demands, he said the Association has also urged the CM to provide house, car and flexible loans without interest as they lacked any means to earn money through part-time work, so that they may enable themselves to meet the economic challenges.

He added that it was also preyed to the CM to ensure that allocation of posts and promotions under 3 percent disabled quota was implemented at all public.

/778C:ajb/P:ajb/R:meh