Chief Secretary B.K Agarwal said that the state government was concerned about providing best educational, health and other facilities to the children with special abilities and various schemes had been initiated for ensuring their welfare.He was presiding over a meeting of senior officers of Directorate of Empowerment, SCs, OBCs, Minorities and the Specially Abled to review the facilities being provided to deaf, dumb and visually impaired students of the Institute of Children with Special Abilities Dhalli (Shimla) and Sundernagar.The Chief Secretary said that the medical examination of students of Dhalli institute was conducted at IGMC, Shimla in which various children were identified for providing hearing aids. The students of Sundernagar institute were also being examined and provided required aids. He added with a view to ensure medical examination (BERA test) of the hearing impaired children at a larger scale, decision had been taken to provide testing facility at district level hospitals of the state as well.He said that Social Justice and Empowerment department has issued 91,958 disability certificates to all categories of persons with special disabilities (PwDs) out of which 11,473 are hearing impaired. The department in collaboration with the district administration and health department would conduct a special drive for assessing the disability of PwDs and prepare the list of hearing impaired persons who are in need of hearing aids and will provide the same. Shri Agarwal said that training was being provided to such youth in different trades through Technical Education department. Besides, vocational training was also being imparted to them under SUJOP scheme through different training services providers to help them in getting employment and self-employment opportunities.Director, Empowerment, SCs, OBCs, Minorities and the Specially Abled Hans Raj Chauhan detailed about the progress under various schemes and facilities being developed for the institutes for children with special abilities.Additional Chief Secretary, Health RD Dhiman, Special Secretary Dr. Nipun Jindal, Joint Director, Welfare Onkar Chand and other senior officers of the department and specialist doctors from IGMC, Shimla were present in the meeting.