TLSC Kangan organizes Awareness Prog on Mentally ill & Mentally Disabled Persons

Ganderbal: On the directions of Secretary District Legal Service Authority (DLSA) Ganderbal, Nusrat Ali Hakak and under the guidance of Chairman Tehsil Legal Services Committee (TLSC) Kangan, Essar-Ul-Nabi, the TLSC Kangan on Saturday organized an awareness programme on Legal Services to Mentally ill and Mentally Disabled Persons Scheme 2015 at Government Higher Secondary School Gund.
Advocate Sajad Ahmad Khan, Resource person delivered speech on the said topic.
Speaking on the occasion, he said that under section 12 of legal services Authority Act 1987, persons who are disabled as defined in clause 1 of section 2 of the persons with disabilities ( Equal opportunities, protection of rights and full participation) Act 1985 and those in a psychiatric hospital or in a psychiatric nursing home within the meaning of clause (Q) of section 2 of the mental health Act 1987 are entitled to legal services.
He said, hence NALSA has drawn up a scheme to provide effective legal services to Mentally ill and Mentally Disabled Persons in 2010, in terms of its mandate under S.4 (B) of the legal services Authority Act 1987.
He further said that though the scheme was first launched in 2010, from the reports receiving from all the states on its implementation, It appears that there is a need to revive the scheme to strengthen the service rendered by the state Legal Services Authorities / Legal Services Institutions to these marginalized people to enable them to access justice.
There is imperative need for a proactive outreach to these people so for the SLSAs /DLSAs seem to be concerned only with matters reaching them. Even then, there remains much to be done in court related activities, he added.
He further maintained that It is in this background that this new scheme for Legal Services to Mentally Ill and Mentally Disabled persons has been drawn up as NALSA Scheme 2015.