No subdivision of 1% quota between blindness, low vision: Social Justice Ministry to Railway Board

New Delhi, Sep 28 (PTI) The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment has advised railways against subdividing 1 per cent reservation earmarked for persons with visual impairment into 0.5 per cent each for persons who are "blind" and those with "low vision." The ministry made the suggestion in a letter to the chairman and CEO of the Railway Board.

It said it has got to know about a railway recruitment exercise in which 1 per cent quota has been subdivided into 0.5 per cent each for the blind and those with low vision The ministry said the railways must follow Section 34 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016, which mandates a reservation of not less than four per cent of the total number of vacancies in government establishments for persons with benchmark disabilities.

The law distributes the four per cent reservation into one per cent each across four categories of disabilities, one of which is "blindness and low vision." "In view of the above, it is to convey that the Act does not mandate any sub-quota of reservation within a category of disability. The 1 per cent reservation provided for each specified category of disabilities, as outlined in Section 34, is allocated collectively to the group as a whole," the ministry in its communication said.

"Accordingly, reservation of 1 per cent for each category is to be treated as collective and indivisible," it asserted.

Railway Board officials said all zonal railways and production units have been asked to adhere to the ministry's communique. PTI JP VN VN