Administration fails the differently-abled

CUTTACK: The World Disability Day virtually turned into a joke for the disabled when the Cuttack District Health Administration did not distribute disability certificates to them as per prior notice.  The Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO) had issued a notification for screening of people with disabilities and disbursement of certificates thereafter on Saturday. Accordingly, more than a hundred people had reported at the office to undergo screening by the Medical Board and get their certificates. On arrival, they were told that the Medical Board could not be constituted and thus they would have to come back next Saturday. This fuelled resentment among the beneficiaries, who had come from distant places, undergoing immense problems just to get their certificates. People from  Narsinghpur and Kamaladiha, which are 140-150 km from the city, had travelled to the office. As the situation began to turn volatile with the beneficiaries pitching for distribution of the certificates on Saturday itself, Collector Girish SN was informed and on his intervention the board, which comprises specialists from surgery, eye, ENT and medicine was constituted barring orthopaedics specialist. The screening was conducted late but the vast majority of the disabled, who constituted those with orthopaedic disabilities, had to leave empty handed. CDMO Dr Manorama Dei, who is under cloud over gross defiance of Government orders on transfer of staff as per rules and irregularities in the district headquarters hospital, Cuttack, or City Hospital, said that there were no specialists available for conducting the screening as they were deputed to Biju Swasthya Yojana camps.But the beneficiaries alleged that if that was the case then the CDMO could have postponed the screening and distribution of certificates. “This exposes the sincerity of the Government and its officials for welfare of the differently-abled persons. The CDMO was blunt and lacked any sensitivity towards our predicament even though Sunday was observed as the World Disability Day,” said a beneficiary. Meanwhile, the district administration has held an inquiry into the functioning of the CDMO and has found serious lapses, sources said.