NPPCD program: Funds released traceless
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, January 29 2013:
The National Programme for Prevention and Control of Deafness (NPPCD), which has been taken up by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India for the welfare of hearing impaired persons of the country, has become a complete disaster in the State with funds released by the Ministry remaining traceless.
With no Nodal officer to monitor implementation of the programme in the State, the huge amount of funds released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on regular basis has not been able to trace and it is not known where the funds are or have been utilized.
According to a highly placed source, NPPCD programme is being implemented in Manipur as a pilot phase under an NGO by the name of Spastic Society, Manipur.
However, after inclusion of the programme under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), the responsibility of the programme was handed over to the State Health Society, Manipur.
The source further revealed that the programme which is cent percent funded by the Central Government is seen implemented partly at JN Hospital but it has never been implemented in Bishnupur District hospital, Senapati District Hospital and Ukhrul district Hospital.
Consequently, the Audiometric Assistants and other staffs who have been recruited for smooth implementation of the programme are being utilized for some other purposes in Ukhrul, Senapati and Churachandpur distict.
The source pointed out that an amount of Rs 60.57 lakhs had been sanctioned by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the fiscal year 2007-08.Apart from that, funds are being sanctioned regularly on yearly basis.
For the current fiscal year as well, the Ministry has approved sanctioning of Rs 54.97 lakhs from the proposed Rs 60.73 lakhs.
However, in spite of sanctioning such huge amount of funds in terms of crores of rupees by the Ministry year after year, the concerned department of the State Government has not been able to take up any welfare programmes for people with hearing impaired satisfactorily, the source expressed surprise.
When contacted in this regard, Dr Sapam Jashobanta, General Secretary of Handicap Foundation Manipur told Hueiyen Lanpao that there are around 63 million people with hearing impaired in the country.
According to the 2001 census report, the total number of differently able-persons in the state have reached 29,000 and a number of them are hearing impaired.
He observed that since there is no Nodal Officer for NPPCD programme in the State, it has become impossible to figure out how many people with hearing impaired have been benefitted from implementation of the programme in the State.
The attitude of the State Health Society is indeed very unfortunate, he said, while informing that a report over the implementation process of the programme in the State would be submitted to the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) .
He also pointed out that non-implementation of NPPCD programme is an act of violation of rights of the differently abled persons.
The concerned authority should look into the matter and implement the programme in its entirety before any unwanted and undesirable incidents crept up, he cautioned.
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