Centre to invest Rs 1,700 crore for NISH: Thawar Chand Gehlot

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Centre will invest Rs 1,700 crore in phases to transform NISH here as the National University for Rehabilitation Sciences and Disability Studies to benefit differently-abled people, Union Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot said.

"It is provisioned to spend Rs 390 crore for the first five years of expansion of the University which will have infrastructure as well as operational components," he said during his brief visit to the National Institute of Speech and Hearing (NISH) here, yesterday.

"The rest of the amount will be granted in the next phases which will span another five years," the Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment said.

Gehlot, in his address, praised the state government's initiative to build an institute as NISH which provides high quality services for the population with disabilities.

The minister, who made a round of the NISH campus, was accompanied by officials from the Department for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, including its Secretary Luv Varma and Joint Secretary Awanish K Awasthi.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked us to implement different policies for the differently-abled people and we are working on these strategies. We are planning to set up an institution for the sign language and the hearing impaired people which will be registered in March," he said.

The Centre's aim is to have a country with people with no disabilities and if at all there are such people, government will provide necessary support and education to them and equip them with instruments, devices and other facilities to help them fully integrate themselves in mainstream life, he said.

The government would also provide support for the visually challenged with Braille language books and equipment and would provide help to perform cochlear implantations for children below six years who are having hearing and speech impairment.

"We will provide Rs six lakh for each cochlear implant; we have already done this implantation for 300 children, after which they were given the necessary therapy so that they could hear and speak gradually," he said.

The minister also wished all success to the university which is projected to have more than 4,000 students by the time the full project is implemented.

NISH Director G Vijayaraghavan, Executive Director Dr Samuel N Mathew, and Special Secretary, Social Justice Department, Government of Kerala, A Shajahan were among those present on the occasion.