Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Thursday announced some new schemes for disabled people.Tabling the union budget 2014-15 in parliament, Jaitley said: "Fifteen new Braille presses will be established and 10 existing ones will be revived."Jaitley said the scheme to assist the disabled to purchase aids and appliances will be extended."I propose to extend the scheme for assistance to disabled people for purchase of aids and appliances to include contemporary aids and assistive devices," he said."A national level institute for Universal Inclusive Design and Mental Health Rehabilitation and a Centre for Disability Sport has also been proposed for the welfare of disabled people in the country," Jaitley said.He said that to assist visually impaired people, the government will print Braille-like signs on currency notes."The government will print currency notes with Braille-like signs to assist visually challenged people," Jaitley said during his maiden budget speech in parliament.
The initiative of printing notes with Braille-like signs was later hailed by many visually impaired people."This is a very good initiative. If the government really is able to print currency with Braille-like signs, this will prove that it is concerned about the problems of people with disabilities," said Raju Kohli, a visually impaired man working with a rural development bank in the national capital.Varun Mahato, an IT professional working with a media organisation, said: "Though the government has come up with a very great initiative, they need to make sure that the Braille prints in currency notes do not deteriorate once the notes become old."