Shimla, Nov 20 (IANS): In a major relief to the visually impaired and physically challenged, the Himachal Pradesh University in Shimla has allowed them to engage a writer irrespective of his qualification in the exams, an official said Thursday.

Vice Chancellor A.D.N. Bajpai has approved the examination policy as per the guidelines of the ministry of social justice and empowerment for students with disabilities, a university spokesperson told IANS.

As per old rules, the writer was to be a class lower than the candidate.

Now, it would be the duty of an invigilator to keep check that no unfair means are used by the writer while writing the answers, he said.

Moreover, the university would not charge any fee from the disabled candidates for availing the facility of the writer.

The policy also gave an hour's additional time to them in an examination of three-hour duration.

The new rules will be implemented in the examinations beginning Nov 27, said the university spokesperson.

Ajai Srivastava, member secretary of the committee that recommended changes in the old policy, said college principals have now been authorised to give permission for availing writers to the disabled.

Earlier, only the controller of examination of the university was authorised to give such permission. In case of an emergency, the candidates would be allowed to change their writers.

The university would provide alternative questions to visually impaired candidate in place of map-based questions. Likewise, the hearing impaired candidates will have an option to take objective type questions in place of descriptive questions.