Latest news with #RPWD
Indian Express
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Govt officials with disabilities to get 4% quota in housing pool
The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry on Thursday decided to extend a 4% reservation for persons with disabilities (PwD) in the General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA), which will cover houses up to Type 5, benefiting officials from Assistant Section Officer (ASO) level to Director rank, it is learnt. The Directorate of Estates under the Ministry issued an office memorandum on Thursday applying the reservation. 'In order to promote the rights of People with Disabilities, laid down in the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPWD), 2016 the Directorate of Estates, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has decided to adopt the reservation of 4% for the allotment of GPRA to eligible Government servants,' it said. Those Central government servants who have benchmark disabilities, as laid down in the RPWD Act, will be given priority for allotment of GPRA every month, it said. In order to be considered for accommodation, all government servants can participate in the monthly online bidding process carried out by the Directorate of Estates. 'The eligible PwD applicants would be given priority over the unified waiting list for both initial allotment/change of GPRA. The Unique Disability ID (UDID) card issued by the Government will be a valid document for proof of disability,' the OM said. According to government sources, when a government servant joins as an ASO, it takes about 15 years to be allotted a home due to the shortage of housing. As of now, the waiting period for some categories is up to 18 years, an official said. Some government servants who have disabilities are forced to stay in hostels and away from their families due to the lack of housing, the official said. Overall, the Directorate of Estates manages 1.02 lakh GPRA units across 355 locations in 61 cities.
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Business Standard
23-04-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Delhi HC seeks response from Swiggy, Zepto, Meity on PwD accessibility plea
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought a response from Swiggy, Zepto, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on a plea alleging that the mobile applications of Swiggy and Zepto are inaccessible for persons with disabilities. Justice Sachin Datta has fixed the hearing on May 28. The petition has been filed by Mission Accessibility, an NGO advocating the rights of persons with disabilities. The plea says that the mobile applications in question are inaccessible for persons with disabilities, particularly those with visual impairments. This prevents people from using essential services such as food delivery, grocery shopping, and restaurant reservations, the plea said. It also said that both Zepto and Swiggy platforms have failed to ensure compliance with accessibility requirements under Sections 40 and 46 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act, 2016 and Rule 15 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2017. Section 40 of the RPWD Act mandates the central government to set accessibility standards for physical environments, transportation, and information and communication technologies. Section 46 requires all government and private service providers to ensure accessibility in accordance with these rules within a two-year timeframe. As per the plea, the lack of accessible search features, unlabelled interactive elements, absence of essential product details, and the inability of visually impaired users to position their device cameras for necessary transactions, such as returning items, create severe barriers to independent digital access. The petition sought a court direction to the two platforms to submit a detailed accessibility audit report from a government-empanelled auditor identifying all existing barriers faced by persons with disabilities on their digital platforms. A direction is also sought on Zepto and Swiggy to provide a long-term strategy to ensure that all future updates, modifications, and newly introduced features remain fully accessible and compliant with established accessibility standards.
