Bareilly: Despite enrolling for Unique Disability Identity (UDID) cards, only 428 out of the 24,000 disabled people in Bareilly district have been issued identification numbers in the past two years. The reason, officials said, was unavailability of funds and staff crunch in the district disabled welfare office.The matter came to light during a meeting that was held via video conferencing between additional chief secretary (ACS) Mahesh Kumar Gupta with district magistrate VK Singh, district disabled welfare officer (DDWO) Neeta Ahirwar and chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Vineet Shukla on Thursday. It was called to discuss reports about the district office’s poor performance in issuing UDID cards to the disabled.DDWO Ahirwar, who is also the deputy probation director, said, “We have been able to carry out physical verification of only 25% people even though the complete work should have been done by June end. The 24,000 disabled people who are registered in the department have been availing pension benefits. We have not received additional budget or staff by the government and there are only two clerical members in our office to carry out the job.”The picture seems equally dismal in other districts of Uttar Pradesh. According to the disabled welfare office here, out of 33 lakh people only 55,000 have been issued the unique identity number in the state.CMO Shukla said, “Our work starts once a disabled person applies for a card online on the ‘Swavlamban’ portal. We have been facing severe staff crisis and do not even have a computer operator.”

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