Stone laid for Bihar centre for disabled

Union minister for social justice and empowerment Meira Kumar and CM Nitish Kumar jointly laid the foundation stone of a Composite Rehabilitation Centre (CRC) for the physically challenged.

"It will be a boon for persons with disabilities," Nitish said while speaking at the function. He, however, urged the Centre to allocate funds so that construction work could start at the earliest.

The Union minister did not disappoint the CM. While thanking the state government for allocating land for the CRC, she said a sum of Rs 6 crore has already been allocated and the construction work would start soon.

"We have also sanctioned 19 posts for the CRC-Patna and in order to ensure that people of this state are not deprived of the services of the composite centre till the building is completed, we have decided to run the CRC from a makeshift building," she said.

Earlier speaking at the function Ashish Kumar, deputy director general (DDG) in Union ministry of social justice and empowerment, spoke at length about the purpose of opening the centre.

Bihar is the sixth state after Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, UP, Madhya Pradesh and Assam to have such a centre where people with disabilities would get composite service under one roof. The Patna centre would also have facilities to train people who would be used for imparting skill-development training to people with disabilities.

Chief commissioner for persons with disabilities, Dr Manoj Kumar, and Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) director Dr Arun Kumar also spoke at the function.

The proposed centre would come up on a 3.3-acre plot which is located on the IGIMS premises.

The stone-laying function was followed by inauguration of the CRC in the makeshift building, the Red Cross building, near the Gandhi Maidan.link