State has quota for the disabled, K'taka tells SC

 The Karnataka government has told the Supreme Court that it has already provided 3% reservation for the disabled people for group ‘A’ and ‘B’ posts and 5% for group ‘C’ and ‘D’ posts, as mandated under the law.

The information was furnished to the court in a PIL filed by Justice Sunanda Bhandare Foundation seeking directions to the Centre and the states to file reports on the status of the implementation of provisions of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.

The apex court is examining if the states have fulfilled their obligations in reserving and filling the posts in government jobs for the disabled people. In a status report, Karnataka submitted it has so far identified 699 posts in 54 departments to be filled by the persons with disabilities.
“The state of Karnataka in the year 2006 itself issued notification and reserved 3 % posts in ‘A’ and ‘B’ groups and 5 % posts in ‘C’ and ‘D’ groups in all the departments viz., boards, corporations, local self government, aided institutions,” it stated.

The Persons with Disabilities Act provides for separate one per cent reservation for each of the three categories of persons with disabilities - persons suffering from blindness and low vision, those with hearing disability and those suffering from locomotor disability or cerebral palsy.