"A large number of disability rights activists found the Bill to fail on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) standard and consequently the chairperson of the Rajya Sabha referred the Bill to a House Committee," said P K Pincha, CCPD, in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The letter comes in the midst of reports that the government is planning to bring an ordinance even as the Rights to Persons with Disabilities Bill 2014, is pending in the Rajya Sabha which has referred it to the Standing Committee for improvement.
Pincha said subsequently several rumours started to float that the government intends to bring the bill in the shape of an ordinance, which was problematic because disability rights is not an unoccupied legislative field.
The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 already controls the area. If the bill of 2014 is promulgated as ordinance, it cannot become operable unless the Act of 1995 is repealed, said Pincha, who was the first person with disability to have been appointed as the CCPD in December 2011. He is visually disabled since birth.
"This statement from your office will restore peace and assuage the tempers of highly agitated community and also give out a clear message to the international community that India is totally sworn to its international commitments," he said.
The Office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities has been mandated to take steps to safeguard the rights of persons with disabilities.