Bhubaneswar: More than half of the differently-abled population in the state is still out of the ambit of the digital Unique Disability Identity Card (UDID) despite the Ministry of Social Justice rolling out the cards around three year ago.
The UDID project was started by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities envisioning a holistic end-to-end integrated system for issuing such digital cards. It was said that these cards would pave way for an online national repository to facilitate easy application of different schemes and reduce chances of duplication of data.
The latest information accessed from the state Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) Department claim that out of around 6 lakh differently-abled who had applied for this, nearly 3 lakh have got it, leaving the remaining without the digital IDs.
However, most of the beneficiaries, as per the department’s own admission, have not received their UDID cards as it is to be issued with State Identity cards to make them eligible for availing several government schemes.
The department has now asked all the Collectors to work on the issue and expedite the entire process. In a formal communication to the Collectors, the department has asked them continue their work with a view to ensure disbursement of the UDID cards.
SSEPD secretary Bhaskar Sarma told Orissa POST, “These certificates are given to the PwDs with more than 40 per cent disability. There is a Medical Board which certifies the disability levels. The cards are issued in phases. Recently, due to COVID outbreak, the medical board meeting also suffered a bit.”
The department officials claim that checks and balances have been planned in the issue of disability certificates to weed out fake beneficiaries.
Manish Kumar, OP