Hyderabad: The process of issuing Universal Disability Identity cards was taken up in 15 states, including TS on Friday.
There are about 10.55 lakh disabled in TS, of which 7 lakh were given disabled certificates. All certificates issued by the state government will be linked to UDID.
“As the disability certificates issued by state governments were not valid across departments and in other states, the Central government has started the process to issue UDID certificates that will be accepted throughout the country and in all departments,” chief commissioner for persons with disabilities, Kamlesh Kumar Pandey, said here on Friday.
As per Census-2011, 2.68 crore people in the country have disabilities, of whom 50.5 per cent have been issued the disability cards by the states.
Mr Pandey said he has spoken to the TS Chief Secretary to start an independent department for the welfare of the disabled. “A proposal is also under study for starting a department of Disability Studies in the Osmania University to take up research,” he said.
He said the government started issuing the cards in 15 states in the first phase following the success of a pilot project.
