The government of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday nominated grievance redressal officers for persons with disability (PwD) in all the concerned departments of the Union Territory.

According to a notification, appointments of these officers have been made to ensure that the persons with disabilities enjoy the rights to equality, life with dignity and respect for his or her integrity equally with others, personal liberty, reasonable accommodation and appropriate environment with zero tolerance for discrimination on the ground of disability.

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The document further read that the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 makes it mandatory to follow certain principles for empowerment of persons with disabilities. These inter alia included respect for inherent dignity, individual autonomy including freedom to make one’s own choices and independence of persons, non-discrimination, full and effective participation and inclusion in society, respect for difference and acceptance of persons with disabilities as part of human diversity and humanity, equality of opportunity, accessibility, equality between men and women and respect for evolving capacities of children with disabilities and respect for the right of children with disabilities to preserve their identities.

The notification added that the government in the Social Welfare Department framed the Jammu and Kashmir Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2021 for effective implementation of provisions of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

The sub-rule (2) of Rule 14 of Jammu and Kashmir Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2021 provides that the Grievance Redressal Officer appointed by every department shall maintain a register of complaints of Persons with Disabilities with various particulars like date of complaint, name of complainant, name of the person who is enquiring the complaint, place of incident, the name of establishment or person against whom the complaint is made, gist of the complaint, documentary evidence, if any, date of disposal by the grievance Redressal Officer, details of disposal of the appeal by the district level committee, and any other relevant information.