NEW DELHI: The department of financial services of the ministry of finance has issued an advisory to all public sector banks and insurance companies to treat absence of employees with disabilities during the lockdown period as “special leave without loss of pay.”On Wednesday, the department of financial services of the ministry of finance issued an advisory stating that since employees with disabilities are exempted from duty during lockdown period, treating absence of such employees as “sick leave” during this period is not appropriate. Such period of absence may be treated as “special leave without loss of pay.”The advisory is addressed to Reserve Bank of India , all public sector banks, public sector Insurance companies and financial institutions among others.Sharing the advisory on Thursday on its official twitter handle the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities of the ministry of social justice and empowerment pointed out that it was on the request of the National Federation of Blind that the department took up the matter with the department of financial services which has issued the advisory making the position clear.On March 27 the department of personnel and training issued an office memorandum exempting persons with disabilities from essential services duty during lockdown period. Department of financial services was also requested by DoPT to issue similar instructions to banks and financial institutions on April 1.However, the DEPwD got to know that the State Bank of India issued a circular which mandates to treat the period of absence from duties in case of employees with disabilities during lockdown as “sick leave”. The DEPwD officials wrote to the department of financial services pointing that since employees with disabilities are exempted from duty during lockdown period, treating absence of such employees as sick leave during this period is not appropriate.