12-yr-old visually impaired boy falls to death; Welfare body seeks Rs 1 cr relief for parents

Hyderabad: PonugotiChokka Rao, general secretary, Development and Welfare Association of the Blind, Telangana and Secretary, All India Confederation of the Blind, Hyderabad,on Friday, said he was sad to know through news reports that a 12 year-old visually impaired boy Goutham Laxmi Srikar, studying in Devnar School for the Blind, Mayuri Marg, Begumpet, fell from 5thfloor on Thursday.

In a pressnote released here, Chokka Rao said, "This is a very unfortunate incident for a blind student to die in such a tragic situation. We would like to highlight the issue relating to running Blind School by NGOs in the city when there are already two blind schools in Hyderabad. The Government Blind Schools in Hyderabad have all the infrastructure with trained teachers and a low student strength. Therefore, there is no reason for encouraging a private NGO to run Blind School with no adequate infrastructure and trained staff. Most of NGOs running Blind School are found to be illegal with dubious history. Already there is steady decline in children born with partial or complete blindness and therefore the government should keep an eye on private organisations running blind schools with the only motive of making money."

"We request the Central and State Governments to immediately investigate the tragic death of blind student in the private school to find out the truth and to avoid such incidents happening in future. We also demand the Governments to extend financial help of Rs one crore to the parents of the Blind student Goutham Laxmi Srikar. We held a condolence meeting in our Blind School in Nalgonda by observing two-minute silence and our Blind students and staff paid respects to the fellow blind student, who died in tragic circumstances yesterday," the release said.

"We request the Governments to shift all the blind students studying in private blind school in Hyderabad to the Government Blind Schools in Hyderabad where the Schools have all the infrastructure and trained staff with a smaller number of students. This will ensure safety of the blind students and save them from definite deterioration in their wellbeing. We have been running a private Blind School in Nalgonda for the past 30 years as there was no government blind school in that area.