KATHMANDU, Aug. 15: The Supreme Court today issued a slew of mandamus and directive orders to the government. These orders are related to the rights and interests, education, health and social security issues of the differently-abled.
A joint bench of the Supreme Court Judges Tahir Ali Ansari and Kamal Narayan Das issued six mandamus and seven directive orders in that connection.[break]
The mandamuses require the government to provide sustenance allowances in the range of Rs 500 to Rs 3,000 per month to the identified disabled persons and the disabled senior citizens and a special monthly allowance in the range of Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 to the disabled persons who are fully infirm and mentally unsound.
Likewise, the joint bench of the apex court issued mandamuses requiring the government to post at least one social welfare official in every district, to provide the above-mentioned allowances within three months from the date of receiving this order.
Similarly, through the mandamus, the Supreme Court has directed the government to appoint social welfare officers within six months from the date this mandamus has been issued and to inform the Supreme Court on the implementation of this order within the seventh month.
The Supreme Court has, likewise, issued directive orders to the government to conduct a census of people with physical, mental and intellectual disabilities and to classify them; to build at least one home for the disabled every year in the districts and areas with sizeable disabled population; and to implement in an effective manner the provisions related to the accommodation, education, health, training and other facilities to the disabled.
The apex court also issued order in the name of the government to assign a monitoring officer at the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare and the Council of Ministers Secretariat for monitoring the activities of the non-government agencies, to formulate programmes and make special arrangements for the disabled and to gradually implement them, and to revise and integrate the related Acts and regulations.
Dipendra Shakya, a disabled from Bhaktapur district, had filed a writ at the Supreme Court in August last year. The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health and Population, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Local Development, the National Planning Commission and the Legislature-Parliament were named as the defendants in the writ.
Related story
Desperate search for missing girls as nearly 80 dead in Texas f...
