Team Herald
PANJIM: Leader of the Opposition Yuri Alemao on Wednesday demanded that the government immediately implement ‘Disability Security SOP’ and restart the exclusive helpline number to address their issues.
In a letter to the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Alemao alleged that the government has failed to keep continuity of the helpline that exclusively started in 2022 for disabled people.
“There are 50,000 disabled persons in our state. With the initiative of people working for their welfare, the then DGP I D Shukla had launched this helpline but after his retirement, it stopped functioning and should be immediately restarted,” he said.
According to Alemao, in 2022, Goa police had allotted a common landline number of 1090 and had introduced a WhatsApp number 7875756000 for hearing and speech impaired persons and for those who lacked confidence to speak to police on phone. It was also assured that exclusive helpline number for this service would be allotted, however it has not come into reality.
“Senior journalists and others are working for the welfare of the disabled but the govt has failed to heed to their demands. This proves that this government is insensitive towards people with disabilities,” Alemao charged.
He said that as per SOP, police should visit the house of a disabled person atleast once a week to find out their difficulties.
“But this practice seems to have stopped and it is also mandatory to register any new person with a disability,” Alemao said.
The Oppostion leader said that he would raise this issue in the next assembly session, if the government fails to fulfil the demands.