New Delhi: Around Rs 260.6 crore of fund is lying unused under the National Fund for Persons with Disabilities for over two years now. The fund was created as a part of Rights for Persons with Disability, 2016. Also, no financial audit of the fund was conducted either.
The activities under the fund include scholarship support to students with disabilities. The scholarship was implemented for the period 2009-15. The amount disbursed for the same was Rs 3.51 crore in that period — around more than 50 lakh every year, according to the RTI reply by the Ministry.
This fund was set up in 1983 under the Charitable Endowment Act, 1980 with a corpus of Rs 2.5 crore by the Jawaharlal Nehru Centenary Trust.
The national fund was merged with it when The Disability Act, 1995 came into being.
The RTI reply from the Ministry also stated that the certified reports of the erstwhile fund and the old fund were available but cannot be released as they are voluminous and that they can be seen in the office.
The income generated through investment of corpus fund in nationalised banks and other securities is the only source of income for the national fund.
