Hyderabad, May 2022. The All India Confederation of the Blind, Hyderabad convened a meeting with the representatives of all the organizations working for the Blind in Telangana State in the city on Saturday at its office premises in Babukhan Estate, Basheerbagh, Hyderabad which is its South Indian headquarters.

All India Confederation of the Blind (AICB) is a body of blind persons working for and with the blind community. It recently opened its South Indian headquarters in Hyderabad. AICB is a 42 years old body made up of various state-level associations/organizations, starting from the grass-roots level. It has 24 affiliates across the country

The Seven Organizations’ representatives who met are namely 1. Development and Welfare Association of the Blind, Nalgonda; 2. National Federation of the Blind, Telangana State Branch; 3. Minority Employees Organisation for Blind, Hyderabad; 4. Visually Challenged Employees Association, Telangana State; 5. Blind Employees Association, Telangana State; 6. Telangana Visually Challenged Employees and Teachers Association (TSVETA) and 7. Development Association of the Blind

While appreciating the efforts of the government, the representatives felt that the government was not involving them while making decisions. Their needs were not understood and not met. As a result of that, they were not getting what they actually need. They demanded that the blind community at large must be consulted before making any decisions for their welfare. The representatives of the seven blind organizations that met in the city put forth seven demands in front of the state government

In a marathon meeting that lasted over four hours, the representatives unanimously decided to request the Government to de-reserve the 6th roster from the present exclusivity for women to Blind General which means, Blind both Men and Women.

The second resolution was to continue their good old demand that they have been requesting the State Govt to appoint a disabled person(visually impaired) as Commissioner for Disabled welfare in the Government of Telangana. As per RPWD Act 2016(The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016) – Section 79 (1), the Government should appoint an independent State Commissioner for persons with disabilities instead of the present Employee (Department for Persons with disabilities and Senior Citizen welfare) who is given Full Additional Charge. If the government feels the appointment of a state commissioner is a financial burden on the government, then the members requested the Government to assign this responsibility to any of the commissioners having judicial powers like (1) Right to Information Commissioner (2) Chairman, Human Rights Commission (3) Chairman, ERC etc. or to any retired IAS Officer with judicial powers. Under any circumstances, the State Commissioner for Persons with disabilities should NOT be an employee.

The third demand was that severely disabled persons(visually impaired) should be given first preference in employment rather than the present practice of treating persons with disabilities from 40% to 100% equally and giving preference to only merit. What we wanted is to give preference to the persons having 100% disability and then on merit.

The representatives requested the Government to issue appropriate orders to implement enhancement of the Pay and Allowances i.e. Conveyance allowance and Readers allowance as recommended by the Pay Revision Commission.

The members requested the Government to take necessary steps to make it compulsory and ensure that the blind students who are getting a Monthly Pension of Rs.3000/- attend the school.

The Government should ensure that the Blind persons are given 1% reservation in all government schemes

Their last and seventh demand is that all Special Schools for the blind should be brought under one Umbrella, either under the Welfare Department or the Education Department.