Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs and Tribal Affairs Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali, today called upon specially abled persons to dream big and achieve big in life as they possess indomitable will and spirit. “They must take their disability as special strength rather than a shortcoming”, he asserted.The Minister was speaking to a gathering of specially abled persons of Darhal Constituency after distributing motorised tricycles, wheelchairs, hearing aids and other prosthetic appliances among the beneficiaries in a function organised by District Social Welfare department.A total of 7 motorised tricycles, 7 wheelchairs, 20 hearing aids and 5 cruches amounting Rs 7 Lakh, under CDF, were distributed on the occasion.Among others present were District Development Commissioner, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, Director FCS&CAs, R A Inqlabi, Controller Legal Metrology R K Katoch, SSP Yougal Manhas, AD FCS & CAs Javaid Iqbal and Dy Registrar Cooperatives Waqar Talib, District Social Welfare Officer Dr Abdul Khabir besides others.
Reiterating government’s commitment towards welfare of specially abled persons, old aged and widows, Zulfkar said that with an objective to bring more beneficiaries under the ambit of social security schemes Rs 15 crore each have been added to the existing corpus of Old age Pension and Widow pension schemes.The Minister impressed upon the concerned officers to remove the nonexistent cases under various schemes so to cover pending cases besides taking steps for direct transfer of benefits into the accounts of beneficiaries.Referring to a number of cases for motorised tricycles pending in the State Rehabilitation Council, the Minister assured that he will take up matter with the concerned and get the cases approved within shortest possible time to provide relief to the SAPs.Later, the Minister laid foundation stone for Rs 2.34 crore District Employment and Counseling Center at Baghla Palma and directed the concerned to ensure expeditious completion of the work.DDC Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, Chief Engineer R&B, R F Khan, Ex En Sadeeq Wani, Dy Director DECC Saleem Qureshi and other Officers were present on the occasion.The Minister also took stock of ongoing construction work on Rs 3.38 Crore Gujjar-Bakerwal Hostel at Nagrota. He directed the concerned for quality and timely completion of the work.