Protest on as Disability Rights bill not cleared

Hundreds of disabled people Friday continued their protest at Jantar Mantar here as the Parliament session ended without passing the Disability Rights bill.

This was despite assurances by both the government and the opposition to pass the measure in this session.

The group has been protesting over a month while demanding passage of the bill. The bill would now lapse as the last parliamentary session of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-II came to an end.

Currently, there are more than 70 million disabled in the country.

"This is an extremely sad day for us (disabled in the country) and it is very unfortunate that the political leaders despite making promises and assurances did not make efforts to pass the bill in parliament", Javed Abidi, convenor, Disability Rights Group, told IANS.

He said despite meeting leaders from the government and the opposition, and getting assurances, it was politicised.

"We saw the extremely political Telangana Bill get passed. Then why did the parliamentarians not do the same with the Disability Rights bill, which is non-political and non-contentious" Abidi said.

"A lot of hard work was involved in it," he added.

"I do not understand why politicians could not gather the political will to pass the bill. They should understand that because of them, the most marginalised section will have to pay the price."