After seeing the specially-abled children working in the basement of Regional Institute of Mentally Handicapped without any fan or lighting arrangement, UT Adviser Vijay Dev ordered the engineering wing to install fans and lights within 48 hours. The adviser visited the institute on Thursday morning. He appreciated the programmes run by the institute for the specially-abled children, but was taken aback when he went to the basement of the institute. In total 106 specially-abled children are enrolled for the vocational training at the institute. They are taught candle-making, pottery, block painting, book-binding and other activities. But the place where they are taught these activities neither has any proper lighting or air-conditioning facility. Not even a single fan was installed there. [related-post] “Install fans and lights within the next 48-hours,” ordered the UT adviser after he started feeling suffocating. Dr BS Chavan, joint director, RIMH, informed him that the institute that has 403 students, does not have any playground. “We have around 8.5 acres of vacant land for another building, which includes land for playground as well. For more than seven years now, we have been requesting the UT engineering department to de-mark the land for playground, but they are not listening to us,” said Chavan. When he informed the UT adviser that there is no playground for children, he immediately called the person from the engineering department and ordered him to start the work the same day. “Why there is a delay? Start work from today and complete it within 10 days,” said Vijay Dev. Earlier, a meeting was chaired by the adviser and home secretary. He released a data of house to house survey of disabled children, flagged off a special van and launched a mentorshiop programme.
