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Dr. Rishi Raj Bhati was recently appointed as Director, Public Relations of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and joined the said organisation on 10th January, 2017 on deputation. He is a person with disability (polio). The very next day, Dr. Bhati was handed over a relieving letter stating that the nature of the job would cause him “inconvenience” and that it would also “not be in the organization's interest.”
This is a case of blatant discrimination! It was widely reported in the media on 12th January 2017. The episode also stirred a lot of anger amongst disability groups.
Disabled Rights Group (DRG) with NAD and many other disabled groups about 150 people held a protest today against DDA's discriminatory action at outside DDA, Vikas Sadan, INA, New Delhi on 16th January, 2017.
A delegation met DDA Vice Chairman, Uday Pratap Singh who said DDA will issue a fresh letter of apology to Dr. Bhati and make every attempt to reinstate him with dignity. The delegation led by Javed Abidi, Convener, DRG, also asked for data on the number of persons with disabilities working in DDA along with a disability wise break up. DDA officials have promised that they will gather this information at the earliest and send it to DRG.