Govt will ensure employment to 1 lakh disabled in FY09

New Delhi, Oct 17 (UNI) Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said the government would ensure employment to 1,00,000 physically challenged people by the end of the current financial year and regretted that the scheme launched by the government in the 2007 Budget for these people has made no headway.

''I will ensure that we will employ 1,00,000 people with disability in the remaining six months of this fiscal,'' Mr Chidambaram said at a FICCI Conference on ''Engaging industry in employment of people with disability''.

''Let me plead guilty, the scheme for disabled people that we launched in the 2007 Budget has made no progress so far,'' he said.

Mr Chidambaram said till date not a single employer has made an application for the scheme.

''It shows how sensitive or insensitive we are towards people with disability,'' he said.

The Finance Minister was apparently annoyed at the media not giving adequate attention to issues of human and social interest.

Mr Chidambaram made it abundantly clear that he would not answer any questions pertaining to the stock markets or other financial matters.

He said if he did so then the media will only write about his comments on the markets, obliterating the main issue for which he was at the Federation Conference.

Mr Chidambaram said he knew the questions the media will ask him.

''The same usual stuff. All the Delhi newspapers are filled with the same news but there are other issues that need media attention,'' Mr Chidambaram said.

The BSE SENSEX plunged nearly 606 points ending at 9,975.35 points, for the first since July 2006 on panic selling in all sectors in view of negative cues from global markets.

The media was naturally interested as to why several measures announced by the government to ease liquidity did not have the desired effect on the stock markets.

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