12 parliament seats for disabled demanded

Staff Correspondent

Physically challenged people yesterday demanded reservation of 12 seats in parliament so that they can participate in the country's law-making process.

They said as the ruling four-party-alliance government has decided to expand parliament by adding 150 seats, there should not be any difficulty to meet their demand.

The speakers made the demand at a press conference organised jointly by Trinomul Protibandhi Janogoshthi (TRJ) (Disabled people at grassroots level) and Action on Disability and Development (ADD), two non-government organisations working for the disabled.

We are demanding reservation of seats because the country's election system requires huge financial involvement which is beyond our means, they added.

The speakers demanded one male and one female representative from each of the six divisions.

"Physically challenged people have no representative in parliament to raise their issues and this is one of the major reasons for our deprivation from many facilities we deserve," said visually challenged Supreme Court lawyer Mosharraf Hossain Talukder.

He said 80 handicapped people participated in the immediate-past union parisad (UP) elections and of them, 16 were elected. They are now working in their respective parishads.

Mosharraf said the disabled are not burden, rather they could be resources of the country if proper training and opportunity are provided to them.

According to World Health Organisation, 13 million people are physically challenged in Bangladesh representing nearly 10 percent of the country's total population.

ADD Country Representative Mosharaf Hossain read out a written paper at the press conference attended by TRJ representative Rafiqul Islam, Yousuf Ali and Fazlul Azim.

Source: The Daily Star