26-06-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
TN to give four per cent reservation in promotions for staff with benchmark disabilities
CHENNAI: The state government has issued a Government Order (GO) providing 4% reservation in promotions for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBDs), along with instructions for its implementation.
The move follows recommendations by a high-level committee that scrutinised a report submitted by a sub-committee formed to examine the matter.
The committee was constituted in accordance with section 34 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, which states that the government can provide instructions on reservations in promotions from time to time.
According to the GO, the reservation will apply only to posts identified by the government in establishments where the cadre strength exceeds five, and where the posts fall within pay level 25. It will also apply to recruitment by transfer from a lower pay scale to a higher pay scale.
The 4% quota will be equally distributed among four categories of disabilities – persons with blindness and low vision, persons who are deaf and hard of hearing, persons with locomotor disabilities (including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy), and persons with autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability, mental illness and multiple disabilities including deaf-blindness – with each group receiving 1% reservation.
The Welfare of Differently Abled Persons Department, in consultation with other departments, will identify eligible posts for the reservation in line with the RPwD Act and notify them.
The GO also allows for exemptions in certain cases. As per section 34 of the Act, if the head of a department considers that the nature of work in an establishment is not suitable for PwBDs, they may seek exemption by submitting a detailed representation to the government.
