Govt to pay for eye surgeries of seven children

Karachi
The Sindh Special Education Department will pay for eye surgeries of seven blind children registered at its centres in Sukkur, Hyderabad and Karachi.
This was announced by Rubina Qaimkhani, women development and special education minister, at a press conference on Wednesday. The children were also present on the occasion.
She said the children had been selected after clinical examination of their eyes to determine they suffered from partial or night blindness. She said surgery of each child would cost around Rs45,000 and would be conducted in Al-Rehman and Al-Shifa hospitals.
The department will also explore prospects of private donors to generate funds for curing other blind children studying at government’s special education centres. The department will also carry out a survey to find out the nature and severity of disabilities of some 3,000 students registered with 75 special education centres across the province.
The minister said out of the total 75 special education centres, around 50 were devolved to the provincial government. She said her department was also consulting with non-governmental organisations concerned for preparing the draft of Sindh Disability Bill, which would soon be tabled in the Sindh Assembly to be enacted enacting into law.
A similar bill, the Sindh Special Disabled Persons (Employment and Rehabilitation) Bill 2014, was introduced in the Sindh Assembly last week for facilitating disabled people in the province to get certain privileges on jobs and education.
The proposed law also envisages establishment of a council for rehabilitation of disabled persons for their registration and giving them special privileges on behalf of the Sindh government.
It also calls for full concession in admission fee and relief of 75 per cent in tuition fee at government institutions.