 bill no xlvii of 2006 the visually handicapped persons (employment opportunities and miscellaneous provisions) bill, 2006 a billto provide for creation of employment opportunities by way of reservation and othermeans and for compulsory payment of unemployment allowance by the central government to the visually handicapped citizens and for matters connected therewith and incidental theretobe  it enacted by parliament in the fifty-seventh year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the visually handicapped persons (employment opportunities and miscellaneous provisions) act, 2006short title, extent and commencement(2) it extends to the whole of india (3) it shall come into force with immediate effectdefinitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(a) "appropriate government" means in the case of a state the government of that state and in other cases the central government;(b) "employer" means any person who employs twenty or more persons to do any work in an establishment for remuneration;(c) "establishment" means,—(i) any officer; or (ii) any place where any industry, trade, business or occupation is carried on; (d) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act; (e) "registration officer" means the officer who shall be responsible for the registration of visually handicapped persons for the purposes of this act;(f) "visually handicapped person" means any person who has total absence of sight or vision3 the provisions of this act shall not apply in relation to,—(a) any employment in agriculture or horticulture;act not toapply tocertain employments(b) any employment in domestic or household service; (c) any employment, the total duration of which is less than three months; (d) any employment which carries remuneration of less than rupees two hundred per month4 notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force from the date of commencement of  this act, every employer shall reserve not less than five percent of the vacancies occurring  in any calendar year in any employment in his establishment to be filled in from amongst the visually handicapped persons registered under this actcompulsory reservation of certain percentage of vacancies in employment by employersappointment of registration officers5 the appropriate government shall, by notification in the official gazette, appoint as many registration officers as it may deem necessary for the purpose of registration of visually handicapped persons and may also demarcate the area within which each such officer shall exercise jurisdictionregistration of visually handicapped persons6 (1) every visually handicapped person possessing the prescribed qualifications or experience, as the case may be, shall get himself registered on an application made, in such form and containing such particulars, as may be prescribed, to the respective registration officers within whose jurisdiction he resides(2) on receipt of an application under sub-section (1), the registration officer may cause such enquiries, as it deem necessary, to be made and if he is satisfied that the applicant is a visually handicapped person and possesses the prescribed qualifications or experience, shall register his name in a register and issue to the applicant a certificate of registration in the prescribed form or an identity card, as the case may be(3) the registration officer shall maintain the register in such form and in such manner as may be prescribedemployers to notify vacancies7 notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force,every employer shall, before filling up any reserved vacancy in his establishment shall notify that vacancy to the concerned registration officer within whose jurisdiction that establishment is situatedactions to be taken by the registration officer8 (1) as soon as may be, after the receipt of information about vacancies undersection 7, the registration officer shall furnish a list of visually handicapped persons registered with it containing such particulars as may be prescribed to the employer notifying the vacancies who shall within the prescribed period fill up the requisite percentage of vacancies prescribed in section 4 by appointing such of the visually handicapped persons as he considers suitable and shall inform in writing the fact of such appoinment to the registration officer(2) if any dispute arises between the employer and the registration officer as to the suitability of a visually handicapped person for appointment or as to whether such person is visually handicapped or not, such dispute shall be referred to the appropriate government whose decision thereon shall be finalremoval of names from the register9 (1) when a visually handicapped person has been appointed to fill up any vacancy in an establishment, the registration officer shall remove the name of such person from the register after a period of one year from the date of his appointment(2) where a visually handicapped person is discharged or removed after being appointed by the employer on just and genuine grounds, nothing in this act shall preclude such person to get himself registered again with the registration officer in accordance with the provisions of this actvacancies to be carriedforward10 (1) where in any year any vacancies in an establishment reserved under this act can not be filled up either due to non availability of suitable visually handicapped candidates or for other genuine reasons, such vacancies shall be carried forward to the succeeding year and so on upto the end of the fourth year(2) for the purposes of sub section (1), a visually handicapped person shall not be deemed to be unsuitable to fill up the vacancy unless a certificate in this behalf is obtained by the employer from the registration officer11 (1) every employer shall maintain such records giving such particulars of the visually handicapped persons employed in his establishment in  such manner as may be prescribedemployer to maintain records(2) the records maintained under sub-section (1) shall be open to inspection at all reasonable hours by such persons as may be authorized in this behalf by general or special order by the appropriate governmentpayment of unemployment allowance12 every visually handicapped person registered under this act and who remains unemployed thereafter shall be entitled for unemployment allowance till such time he is given an employment and the central government shall give unemployment allowance of rupees one thousand per month to him in such manner as may be prescribed 13 the central government shall, after due appropriation made by parliament by law in this behalf, provide adequate funds for the purposes of this actcentral government to provide funds penalty14 if any employer contravenes the provisions of this act, he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term, which shall not be less than one year but may extend to three years and also with fine which may extend to one lakh rupeesoffences by companies15 where an offence under this act has been committed by a company, every person who, at the time the offence was committed, was in charge of, and was responsible to the company for the conduct of the business of the company, as well as the company, shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly:provided that nothing contained in this section shall render any such person liable to any punishment under this act if he proves that the offence was committed without his knowledge and that he had exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offenceoffences by government departments16 where an offence under this act has been committed by any department of the central government, the secretary or the head of department by whatever name called of such department shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly:provided that nothing contained in this section shall render the head of such department liable to any punishment under this act, if he proves that the offence was committed without his knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offenceoverriding effect of the act17 the provisions of this act and of any rules made thereunder shall have effectnotwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in any other law for the time being in force, but save as aforesaid, the provisions of this act shall be in addition to and not in derogation of any other law for the time being applicable to visually handicapped personspower to make rules18 the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes of this act statement of objects and reasonsas per national survey on blindness (2001—03) there are estimated 12 crore visually handicapped or blind persons in the country and the estimated prevalence of blindness is 091 per cent in males and 129 per cent in females for these unfortunate visually handicapped persons darkness has become part of their lives shockingly their number is increasing despite the fact that a national programme for control of blindness is under implementation in the country the visually handicapped persons face all sorts of odds in their day to day life and more so the visually handicapped females to provide education to the visually handicapped persons governments are running blind schools and training centres to give them vocational training but number of such schools and training centres is awfully very short but the worst comes when the visually handicapped despite acquiring educational qualifications and vocational training do not get employment and remain neglected in the society many of them are very talented and can deliver the goods but they are denied employment on one pretext or the other in government jobs one per cent vacancies are reserved for visually handicapped persons but even this small percentage is not fully filled up and there remains backlog of vacancies for one reason or the other whereas qualified visually handicapped persons are running from pillar to post to find employment leading to frustration and distress now they are agitating in streets and before government offices hence in a welfare state like ours adequate employment opportunities have to be provided to these unfortunate brothers and sisters of our society so that they too can lead a good lifehence this billsushma   swaraj financial memorandumclause 5 of the bill provides for the appointment of registration officers clause 12provides for the payment of unemployment allowance to the visually handicapped persons clause 13 provides that central government shall provide adequate funds for the purposes of the bill the bill if enacted will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that a sum of rupees one thousand crores may involve as recurring expenditure per annumno non recurring expenditure is likely to be involved memorandum  regarding  delegated  legislationclause 18 of the bill gives power to the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of this bill the rules will relate to matters of details onlythe delegation of legislative power is of normal character rajya  sabha———— a billto provide for creation of employment opportunities by way of reservation and othermeans and for compulsory payment of unemployment allowance by the centralgovernment to the visually handicapped citizens and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto————(shrimati sushma swaraj, mp)mgipmrnd—1768rs(s-4)—28-07-2006