Morung Express News
Dimapur | January 31
The Naga Blind Association (NBA) has lamented that the Nagaland Public Service Commission (NPSC) has ignored the plight of handicapped people by failing to invite them for filing up forms for the various posts advertised by the commission.
“5% reservation for handicapped people was reserved but we were not invited to fill up forms for the various jobs” K Yapang Longkumer, President of the Association told The Morung Express over telephone. He lamented that handicapped people in Nagaland were being ignored particularly the visually impaired. “We have been fighting for 5% job reservation for handicapped people since (the then Chief Minister) SC Jamir’s time but till now we have been ignored” Longkumer lamented adding that the visually impaired persons were facing much hardship. He said that various advertisements under the NPSC should have included quotas or specific jobs for handicapped people. “Blind people like us cannot take up jobs pertaining to the police, doctors and nurses, driving etc but others we can do. (At least) educated handicapped people should be given a chance” Longkumer said.
He further said when it was first reported that for the first time in the country, a quota had been set aside by the NPSC for disabled people for eligibility to various posts but till now with the exception of one person (Gwazenlo Chung, a hearing-impaired candidate, who cleared the NPSC examinations in 2005) no intimations were set to the handicapped. ‘We should not be discriminated against. Instead should be given equal opportunities” he said. He expressed hope that the NPSC would invite handicapped persons for various vacancies while implying that blind persons should be specified out. Neither the Chairperson nor the Secretary of the NPSC could be reached for comment at the time of filing this report.
