News

Volume 4 Issue 3 - February 01, 2006

Karnataka High Court asks State Government to implement Disability Act

D.N.I.S. News Network- The Karnataka High Court has directed the State Government to frame a scheme within the next six months for ensuring the implementation of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act 1995.

Justice K. L. Manjunath gave the direction while disposing a writ petition filed by M. K. Ravindra Ural, a disabled person, seeking a direction to the Bangalore Mahanagara Transport Corporation (B.M.T.C.) to provide space to set up a telephone booth.

The petitioner contended that upon reading a newspaper report stating that B.M.T.C. was giving space to disabled people for opening telephone booths, he had applied for a phone booth or ice-cream vending machine under Section 43 of the Act.

But the petitioner was shocked by the reply from B.M.T.C. which said that the corporation was not bound by the directions of the State Commissioner for Disabilities as no scheme as required by the Act had been framed by the State Government.

According to the much-disputed disability figures of the Census while the national average is placed at two per cent, in Karnataka, it is around five to six per cent.