Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment conferred Uttar Pradesh with the National Award of Excellence, which was given by Vice president M Venkaiah Naidu, for doing a commendable job in the field of rehabilitation of persons with disabilities (Divyangjan).
The award was received by Uttar Pradesh Additional Chief Secretary (Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities) Mahesh Kumar Gupta on behalf of the state government. Besides, Shabina Saifi (Lucknow), Vidisha (Ghaziabad), Seema Tiwari (Jhansi) and Priyanka Devi (Lucknow) received national awards in different categories.
Mahesh Kumar Gupta said that Uttar Pradesh also received the award for the best state in the implementation of Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan. The department's website also received the award as the best portal for being disabled-friendly while Varanasi has been awarded for offering the best rehabilitation services among the districts.
Gupta said that the Uttar Pradesh Government had launched the Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan in 2014-15 for providing accessible physical infrastructure and other communication facilities to people with disabilities. Under this campaign, while considering the efforts of the Uttar Pradesh Government as best for the past three years in making the public buildings of various districts disabled-friendly, the state was conferred the award of excellence.
He further added that in the Sugamya website, a screen reader software for visually-impaired has been used. The people who find it difficult to use the mouse can use voice recognition software to use the website. The computer works on verbal commands.
Varanasi received the award of the best district for doing excellent work for people with disabilities.
On the occasion, Union Minister for social justice and empowerment Thawar Chand Gehlot, Union Minister of state for social justice and empowerment Krishnapal Gurjar, Ramdas Athawale, Ratanlal Kataria, public representatives, senior officers of the ministry and others were present.