Know All About Disability Certificates Submitted By Controversial Trainee IAS Officer Puja Khedkar

Pune, 16th July 2024: In August 2022, trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar applied for locomotor disability certificates from the District Civil Hospital in Aundh and Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital (YCMH) in Pimpri.

Dr. Nagnath Yempalle, the civil surgeon at District Civil Hospital, Aundh, stated on Monday, “Khedkar received a 7% disability certificate for locomotor disability from YCMH on August 24, 2022. However, on October 11, 2022, we rejected her application dated August 23, 2022, due to the Unique Disability ID (UDID) website showing two concurrent applications. As a result, we rejected her application.”

In 2019, during her civil services preliminary exam, Khedkar registered as Khedkar Puja Deeliprao. She was appointed as an assistant director at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) under the name Khedkar Puja Deeliprao, classified as Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) (LV) OBC. However, in her 2022 service allocation by the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC), where she was selected for IAS, she used the name Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar under the PwBD-multiple disabilities (MD) category.

The Central Administrative Tribunal, Mumbai bench, in its order dated February 23, 2023, listed her as Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar.

Dr. Rajendra Wable, dean of the Postgraduate Institute at YCMH, Pimpri, stated that he certified a 7% locomotor disability for Puja Khedkar, who provided a Pimpri Chinchwad address in her application. “We believe her online application at Aundh hospital was automatically canceled because the certificate had already been generated at YCMH,” he explained.

The YCMH disability certificate stated, “The diagnosis in her case is an old ACL tear with left knee instability. She has a 7% permanent disability in her left lower limb as per the guidelines.”

In Pune, nine centers, including Sassoon General Hospital, District Civil Hospital in Aundh, YCMH in Pimpri, and Kamala Nehru Hospital, are designated to assess and certify disabilities.

Meanwhile, Ahmednagar’s district civil surgeon, Dr. Sanjay Ghogare, submitted a report to the Ahmednagar district collector on Monday, detailing two certificates previously issued in 2018 and 2021. The report disclosed that Khedkar had been diagnosed with a 40% vision impairment in 2018. In 2021, she was granted a certificate for depression and low vision, with the auto-generated disability assessed at 51% by the civil hospital in Ahmednagar.

The report stated, “On April 25, 2018, Puja Khedkar was examined by an ophthalmic surgeon for her vision problem and was found to be suffering from BE High Myopia with Myopic degeneration, with a 40% permanent disability. Accordingly, she was issued a Disability Certificate of SADM (Software for Assessment of Disability) on April 25, 2018. These details are available at the civil hospital in Ahmednagar.”

The report added, “On January 18, 2021, she was examined for psychiatric illness by psychiatrists. The Indian Disability and Evaluation Assessment Scale found her to be suffering from depression.”

According to the UDID, she was issued a certificate on January 18, 2021, showing low vision in both eyes (40% disability) and mental illness, brain depression (20% disability), with the auto-generated disability being 51%. She was issued the certificate from Ahmednagar Civil Hospital.

Khedkar had also submitted a medical fitness certificate upon admission to her MBBS degree course in 2007 at Shrimati Kashibai Navale Medical College, along with the nomadic tribe-3 certificate under the OBC category.