Job seeker accuses SBI of violating law

CHANDIGARH: A man living with disability has alleged discrimination by the State Bank of India (SBI) and denial of the right to work. Sector-47 rtesident Himjeet Singh Bains claims that the bank, in its advertisement for probationary officers, has ignored the Rights of People with Disability Act, 2016.
Himjeet Singh has written to the director of social welfare about it and requested him to protect his interest and direct the SBI to follow the Government of India notification and implement the law.Many people living with disability are waiting for the SBI to update more categories, or they would be left with no option but to move the high court. Himjeet Singh stated that he had done bachelor of engineering in electronics and electrical communication from PEC and he has developed degentrative disorder of the nervous system, which is a kind of mental illness. Under the Rights of People with Disabilurty Act, he is entitled to get the benefit of reservation of posts to extent of 4% under the category but the SBI advertisement has no mention of this category. He stated that tbhe SBI has violated the law and denied him his right to work.
The SBI issued advertisement for the recruitment of probationary officers and invited application for the same. It has reserved 4% seats for only three disabled categories-visual impairment (VI), hearing impairment (HI) and locomotor disability (LD). However, in the Act's Section 34, there is provision for reservation under five categories-blindness and low vision, deaf and hard of hearing, locomotor disability (including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy), autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability and mental illness, multiple disabilities from amongst persons. This is under clauses (a) to (d), including deaf blindness, in the posts identified for each disability .
The UT director of social welfare has forwarded the application to the SBI's corporate centre in Mumbai and claimed to have taken necessary action in accordance with the rules on the request of Himjeet Singh. His father, Balwinder Singh Bains, told TOI that there were more than 10,000 people affected with various forms of disability and there were many not coming out in public.
He said government institutions should function by government rules. Himjeet Singh, along with many other disabled people, is awaiting the SBI to update more categories for them so that they could apply for jobs.