The Centre today asked the state governments to identify differently abled people in their respective areas for distribution of Universal Identity Cards to them to help them avail of benefits under various government schemes.
"We will soon start issuing Universal Identity Cards (UIC) for persons with disabilities. All the preparatory work has been done, including the design of the card by the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.
"Very soon these cards will be passed on to the states for distribution. State governments should gear themselves up to identify the persons with disabilities in their respective states, so that within one-and-a-half years all of them can have the cards," Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot said while addressing a conference of Social Welfare Ministers of states.
He said these cards would be linked with Aadhar card and data will be available online which would ensure transparency.
Referring to various scholarship schemes for the persons with disabilities, started by NDA government in 2014-15, Gehlot said, the Centre is very keen that all deserving students avail of the benefits.
He asked the state governments to launch a campaign from next academic year to identify such students so that they could be given the scholarships.
To avoid any delay and leakages, his ministry has adopted direct benefit transfer (DBT) channel to pass on the scholarships, Gehlot said.
Under the "Accessible India Campaign" (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan), Gehlot advised the state governments to approve the building plans only when there are accessibility provisions for people with disabilities as per recently issued NBCC code.
He asked the state governments to identify public utility buildings to carry out access audit and make it disabled friendly.
