The Maharashtra state government will release an interim grant of Rs1.32 crore to be used for subsidising the books and study material.
In a major relief for visually-disabled students who had to shell out a high price to buy their Braille books and study material, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday, directed the Maharashtra state government, which is going to release an interim grant of Rs1.32 crore, to be used for subsidising the books and study material.
A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice RS Dalvi were informed by additional government pleader PM Palshikar, that the National Association for the Blind (NAB), which prints Braille textbooks for Standard I to XII in Marathi and English, will receive the interim amount within a day-or-two.
Accordingly after getting the funds, NAB is required to restore 75% of the subsidy which was given earlier. The directive was issued on a suo-motu public interest litigation based on a newspaper report highlighting fourfold increase in prices of Braille textbooks and other study material required by visually impaired students.
NAB was compelled to hike the prices of Braille textbooks and study material printed and prepared by them from 2010. As the grant, from the Central Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry, was not received from 2006.
The central government extends financial assistance for five activities undertaken by NAB, including printing of Braille textbooks and preparing study material, for 35 years. However, they haven’t received any grant since 2006 following a complaint.
On a previous hearing the court found that there was delay in releasing the grant owing to delay on part of the state government in forwarding NAB’s proposal to the Centre. Thus the court had directed the state government to release the interim amount towards pending grant-in-aid for two financial years – 2007-08 and 2008-09.
The amount will either be adjusted by the Centre or reimbursed by NAB to the state government after receiving the grant from the central ministry.
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