Chennai, Nov 16 (PTI) There is no proposal to merge the National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (NIEPMD) here with the one in Secunderabad, though the department is considering formation of an "Intellectual Disability based Cluster" consisting of the two units, the Madras High Court was informed on Tuesday.

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The department proposes to change only the governing structure and instead of the two institutes having separate executive council or governing council, it is proposed to have a common administrative authority and prepare a common annual report, the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment told the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesavalu.

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The proposal is still under consideration, the ministry added while responding to a PIL petition from A Mahendiran, who prayed for a direction to the Ministry to withdraw the alleged proposal of clustering the two institutes and preserve the status quo of the former in Chennai as it is.

The grievance of the petitioner was that the central government unit in Chennai that gave training to deal with persons with multiple disabilities was being merged with the unit in Secunderabad which imparts training to persons to deal with persons with intellectual disabilities.

In its reply, the Social Justice ministry stated that there was no such proposal for merger of NIEPMD, Chennai with NIEPID, Secunderabad, though the department is considering formation of an "Intellectual Disability based Cluster" consisting of both the units.

The proposal is still under consideration, it added.

As to the specific query of the bench as to whether the training unit pertaining to multiple disorder would be discontinued or disbanded, the ministry stated both the institutions will continue to provide services at their present places. The quality of services will further improve consequent upon clustering, it added.

The judges noted the only inference that can be drawn from the submissions was that the training imparted to persons for dealing with multiple disabilities in Chennai would not be discontinued. Accordingly, the apprehension expressed in the petition is without basis, they added and closed the petition.

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