Punjab Social Security, Women and Child Development Minister Mrs. Aruna Chaudhary, on Wednesday, conferred the State Award 2020-21 upon Divyangjans of exceptional achievements in various fields and organizations working for the welfare of persons with special needs.During the state level function held at Punjab Bhawan, a total of 11 personalities and organizations were honored with State Awards, which included; Harpinder Kaur, Lecturer Pawan Kumar and Pooja Sharma in employee category, Rajveer Kaur and Mandip Singh in self-employed category, among the institutions; Ambuja Manovikas Kendra (Ambuja Cement Foundation Project) Rupnagar and Speaking Hands Welfare Foundation Patiala in the best institution category, Harinder Pal Singh and Indian Red Cross Society Rupnagar in Individual category, while Sumit Soni Bathinda and Miss Renu Rani Patiala were honored with state awards in the sports persons category.Addressing the function, Mrs. Chaudhary, while reiterating government commitment towards the welfare of the Divyangjans, announced that the 4% quota reserved for the Divyangjans in government jobs would be ensured in the ongoing recruitment process of filling one lakh government jobs in various departments. She said that in order to fill the backlog of Divyangjans in the recruitment process, the government has conducted roster register camps of all the departments and carefully checked the backlog in each department.
The Cabinet Minister further stated that Divyangjans, who are unable to type, are exempted from the typing test and those who can type will be given an extra time of 3 minutes 20 seconds after every 10 minutes in the test. The Cabinet Minister said that our government has increased the reservation quota for Divyangjans from 3 to 4 percent in direct recruitment and promotions in government jobs. Besides this, Punjab Divyangjan Shaktikaran Yojana has been implemented in the state, free education is being provided to Divyang students up to the age of 18 years.Mrs. Chaudhary said that a Grievance Redressal Officer has been appointed in every government department to deal with the problems and grievances of the PwDs. She said, the amount of financial assistance to be provided to the disabled under the financial assistance scheme has been increased from Rs.750 to Rs.1500 per month.Mrs. Chaudhary said that the number of Divyangajans in Punjab is 6.5 lakh which is 2.13% of the total population. She informed that the state government has received application from 3,33,994 persons with disabilities for issuing UDID (Unique disabled Identity) cards and so far UDID cards have been provided to 1,95,295 persons. She further said that Punjab was ranked 7th in the country in generating UDID cards from 11th spot.Mrs. Chuadhary informed that the work to make every government and public building in the state disabled-friendly is underway. Similarly, MR Homes for the mentally challenged in the state are being upgraded.Among others who were present on the occasion included; Principal Secretary Social Security, Women and Child Development Raji P. Shrivastava, Joint Secretary Vimmi Bhullar, Additional Director Lily Chaudhary, Deputy Director Gurjinder Singh Maur and Deputy Director Rupinder Kaur.