Date:02/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/02/stories/2008040252330300.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Disability certificate applicants face ordeal

Staff Reporter

2,500 persons line up at the hospital from morning to night

. -Photo: Mohd. Arif

Will Patience pay?: Physically-challenged persons waiting in queue at the district headquarters hospital in Sangareddy on Tuesday

Sangareddy: More than 2,500 differently-abled persons who came here for disability certificates were put to gruelling ordeal in the hot sun at the district headquarters hospital on Tuesday. They lined up at the three counters right from the morning for registration which went on till the evening followed by tests and issuance of certificates. While few of the physically-challenged were accompanied by attendants, others stood for hours bearing the sun without a sip of water. The visually-challenged, the polio-affected, accident victims and the mentally ill who travelled long distance to reach here, were made to wait till late in the night to for the certificates.

Long travel

Ravi, a polio-affected youth from Pedachepyala near Siddipet said that he along with another thirty men and women had travelled all the way from Siddipet which is 150 km from the district headquarters. Ravi felt that a sub-regional board to identify and issue the certificates should be established in other parts of the district. Similarly, partially-blind Bhikshapati from Patancheru pointed out that the Handicapped Welfare Department should provide drinking water facility for the poor and coordinate the process instead of leaving it to the Medical and Health Department. Since the hospital canteen was unable to provide water to these thousands, one of the journalists present there called for a water tanker and offered free water to all.

Hospital woes

Explaining his inability to deal with huge numbers, Medical Superintendent Laxmi Rajam told The Hindu that the board consisting of a chairman, physician, two orthopaedicians, two ophthalmologists, one ENT and neurologist were supposed to examine and issue certificates to only 100 persons on every first Tuesday of the month. “Instead we are forced to deal with thousands in a single day,” he complained. There has been a steep increase in the number of applicants due to incentives of employment and other financial assistance. He however assured that although the counters were to be open only up to lunch hour, his staff would complete the work on hand before closing for the day.