Various projects of the department for the empowerment of differently abled and senior citizens have come to a standstill across the state owing to acute shortage of staff. The department is working with less then 30% of its sanctioned strength — it has just 136 employees, while the required number is 470.
Differently abled and senior citizens in several rural districts are not even aware of the various schemes and facilities available for them as there is a scarcity of field staff who can reach them and create awareness about the government measures.
Skill development training, programmes on employment and health care for the differently abled have also been affected because of this.
Even the office of the director of the department has only 60% of its sanctioned staff strength. It has just 20 members which includes the director, joint director and the assistant director.
Jayavibhava Swamy, director, department for the empowerment of differently abled and senior citizens, said, “Currently, we are running the show with just 136 staff, which includes district-level officers, clerical staff and the Group D staff. We have sent a proposal to the government for sanctioning 15 district-level officers, 50 clerical staff and about 125 Group D staff. We have been sending the proposal to the government for a long time now. Every time we send a proposal, they reply saying that there is financial crunch and hence they do not have resources.”
The department has been asked to recruit through outsourcing, but this again poses yet another problem. The department has several rehabilitation and care centres across the state, but in cases like mental care centres, it is difficult to get workers through outsourcing.
“If we recruit people through outsourcing, they cannot handle such cases, they need to have specific training. Getting people through outsourcing for mental care institutions is difficult.”
Meanwhile, for better implementation of its schemes, the department is looking to create posts in the disabled section at the taluk level offices. As per the plan, the department hopes to create 708 posts, which will include taluk level officers, computer operators and other two supporting staff in each taluk.
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