Odisha govt standardizes medical certificates for disabled job aspirants

Bhubaneswar: The govt job aspirants with disabilities will no longer have to run to govt hospitals time and again to avail medical certificates that allow them a scribe and 20 additional minutes per hour to write their examinations. They can now use one standardised medical certificate for all the recruitment exams that they choose to appear for.The state govt has now directed all its department heads and recruitment agencies to accept a standardised medical certificate from persons with disabilities who wish to appear for various govt recruitment examinations. The department of social security and empowerment of persons with disabilities (SSEPD) has written to all department heads, govt recruitment agencies like OPSC, OSSSC, OSSC, OPRB and SSB in this regard.As per the existing govt guidelines, every person with benchmark or below benchmark disability who is unable to write the paper on his own is entitled to a compensatory time of 20 minutes per hour of examination and a scribe. The examinee must submit a certificate from a medical board certifying his physical limitation to write. The maximum validity of such certificates is one year.The SSEPD department officials said it was often noticed that different govt recruitment agencies used different formats for the certificates from medical boards to certify the use of a scribe and compensatory time. “If Odisha Police Recruitment Board has a specific format for the certificate, it is different for SSB,” said an official.As a result, aspirants with benchmark or below benchmark disabilities were compelled to approach govt hospitals multiple times for reverification and fresh issuance of such certificates if they opt to write different examinations.The official added that the practice resulted in significant hardships, loss of preparation time and financial strain on such candidates, particularly those who are already employed and residing outside their home districts.Providing them relief, it has now been decided that all examination agencies will accept one standardised medical certificate, within the validity period, without insisting on exam-specific formats. All the govt recruitment agencies have been directed to include this new provision in all their recruitment notifications.