THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the Right of Persons with Disabilities (PwD) Act, 2016, coming into force on April 19, the State Government has no choice but to implement pro-disabled reservation norms that it had consistently objected to. The new Act, which will supersede Persons with Disabilities Act,1995, has increased the reservation of PwDs in government jobs to four per cent from three. What’s more, the state will have to revise the State PSC’s rotation pattern in a manner beneficial to handicapped candidates, from 33:66:99 to 1:34:64.
Earlier, when the PwD Act, 1995, was in force, the state commissioner for PwDs could only recommend but did not have the powers to enforce. Now, with the advent of Right of Persons with Disabilities Act, which was passed in the Rajya Sabha in December 2016, penalty including fine and imprisonment can be imposed on officials refusing to honour the legal commitments made to the disabled. It was on December 1, 2015, two years after a Supreme Court order, that the state Law Department officially advised the state government to refine the State PSC’s rotation pattern from 33:66:99 to 1:34:64.
Meaning, the first advice memo should go to the highest ranked handicapped person in the rank list when vacancies are reported in a department, unlike in the existing scenario where the highest ranked handicapped candidate gets a call only for the 33rd vacancy. The State PSC, however, persisted with the 33:66:99 pattern. The Centre has been following the 1:34:64 rotation policy since 2005. The Supreme Court, in a 2013 order, had asked states to follow the 1:34:64 pattern. Right of PwD Act has also expanded the disabilities coming under its purview. Under the earlier Act, only seven disabilities were included. The new Bill brings within its scope 21 disabilities, including Muscular Dystrophy, Chronic Neurological conditions, Multiple Sclerosis, Hemophilia, Sickle Cell disease, Acid Attack victim, and Parkinson's disease.
