Chennai, Jan 21: The Tamil Nadu government today announced a series of welfare measures benefiting differently abled persons, including a complete waiver of the VAT imposed on battery-operated three-wheelers used by them.
“Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has directed to waive off the 14.5 per cent value added tax on battery-operated three-wheelers used by differently abled persons,” an official release here said.
She increased the annual allocation towards procuring modern artificial limbs for differently abled students and entrepreneurs from Rs 35.20 lakh to Rs 70 lakh.
She also announced doubling of the government assistance for teachers employed by NGOs under Department of Welfare of Differently Abled Persons. Over 900 special instructors will be now paid Rs 10,000 as against Rs 5,000.
She also directed expanding the scheme to 39 more special schools, covering hearing and visual disabilities, it said, adding a total of 1,019 special instructors will benefit and government would incur additional expenditure of Rs 12.22 crore.
The Chief Minister also hiked the monthly food assistance of students studying in hostels run by Department of Welfare of Differently Abled Persons from Rs 450 to Rs 650.
The move will benefit 8,214 students, it said. Jayalalithaa announced Rs 1,000 as monthly assistance to over 6,100 inmates of 10 state-run Leprosy rehabilitation homes.
In another measure, she announced providing free bicycles to students of 62 government ITIs (Industrial Training Institute), free laptops and monthly financial assistance of Rs 500.
