NEW DELHI, October 5: The industry on Monday committed itself to the cause of the disabled while various NGOs resolved to take governments to court if the Disability Act was not implemented.The Confederation of Indian Industries announced formation of a core group with members of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People on the first day of a workshop on the Disability Act in the Capital. The group will monitor implementation of the Disability Act which has been in a limbo since its formation.CII Deputy Director-General S. Sen said the organisation entered the area of social responsibility three years ago and now it will add disability to its agenda of future activity. ``We have a three-point action plan for ensuring end to discrimination and more participation for disabled in the private sector,'' he said. The plan will include circulation of information on disability, and ensuring implementation of the Disability Act besides providing basic facilities for the disabled like on railway platforms, aircraft ramps, etc.The workshop organised by NCPEDP, Action Aid, Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology and Concerned Action Now has been pondering why the Disability Act has not been implemented.The workshop saw NGOs from different parts of the country resolve to take governments to court if any clause of the Disability Act was found not implemented. The ignorance of governments and the disabled themselves was seen to be responsible for non implementation of the Act. Litigation will produce results, they felt, in interactive sessions.The newly-appointed Disability chief commissioner B.L. Sharma who opened the two-day workshop said that the states had a major role to play in ensuring equality of opportunity for the disabled. As a first step all state disability commissioners will have to be made full-time functionaries. This should not be an additional charge in the hands of an already overburdened bureaucrat, he said.
