HC seeks info on disabled persons infected by Covid

The Telangana High Court has sought statistics from the government as to how many disabled persons in all the districts in the Telangana state are affected by the Coronavirus, because persons with disabilities (PWDs) are most neglected and some have a weak immune system.

The division bench, comprising chief justice, R.S. Chauhan, and justice, B.Vijaysen Reddy, was dealing with a PIL regarding the condition of PWDs in the lockdown period. The court asked Divya IAS, special chief secretary, as to whether the disabled welfare department’s medical wing gathered any information about the pandemic-infected disabled.

The court said that as they are the most vulnerable segment of the society, utmost care should be taken of them in the context of the pandemic.

Regarding the allocation of a special fund to help the PWDs in the pandemic, though Divya filed a report furnishing details of the budget allocated, the court was not satisfied with the meagre allocation of funds.

An additional budget of `2 crore, apart from the existing `1.5 crore, was needed.

Each district has been disbursed `5 lakhs from these funds, which will be at the disposal of the concerned district welfare officer, to cater to the needs of PWDs.

Observing that the disbursed amount was meagre given that there are thousands of PWDs in each district, the court asked how many were infected by the virus and how they were being treated.