BHUBANESWAR: The differently-abled youths, including students, called off their indefinite agitation on Saturday following a meeting with the Chief Secretary on Friday evening. The youths had started the agitation on Tuesday demanding three per cent reservation as per the PWD Act of 1995 in Odisha Primary Education Programme Authority (OPEPA). In December, OPEPA authorities passed an order stating that it was not entitled to provide reservation in any contractual posts since it was only a registered society. Protesting this, differently-abled youths from various organisations, including the All Odisha Students’ Union of Visually Impaired, Swabhimaan, the Odisha Disabled People’s Network, Viklang Manch, the Odisha Association for the Blind and the Odisha Association for the Deaf started the agitation demanding cancellation of the OPEPAs’ resolution. On Thursday, they had locked up the offices of the State Disability Commission and the Disability Directorate as a mark of protest following which Chief Secretary Bijay Patnaik called for the meeting. The disabled youths had even met Vice-President Hamid Ansari over the issue. Ansari was here to attend the Utkal University’s 44th convocation. Sources said a six-member team met the Chief Secretary who assured them to look into their demand for reservation in OPEPA as per the PWD Act. Patnaik reportedly also assured them that under MGNREGA, he would hold discussions with the PR Department Secretary to provide special job cards and 150 days of work to the differently-abled persons. “The Chief Secretary also assured to look into the backlog vacancies in various departments as far as employment is concerned and provision of unemployment pension to differently-abled youths,” said Asit Kumar Behera, project officer of Swabhimaan, a part of the team that met the Chief Secretary.
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