The High Court on Wednesday expressed displeasure over the city government and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) not taking steps to carry out audit of disabled friendliness of buildings, parks, schools and other public area despite repeated orders.
“We don’t want lip service from government agencies. We want results,” a Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar remarked.
Training module
The Bench asked disability activist Nipun Malhotra, who suffers from locomotor disability, and his non-government organisation to assist the authorities in carrying out the audit and to assist the authorities in framing a training module for government agencies in the Capital to impart disability sensitivity training to its officials.
The training module will be given to the municipal corporations, the DDA, the Delhi Metro, the Delhi Police and the Delhi government so that they sensitise their officials towards the needs of persons with disabilities and special needs.
The court noted that even the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has not carried out a disability audit of its premises, especially at its 10 interchange stations. It directed the DMRC to complete the work within four weeks and listed the matter for hearing on April 19.
The Bench also directed Mr. Malhotra to carry out random inspections where an authority has claimed it has carried out the audit and made necessary modifications to the buildings to make them more accessible for the differently-abled.
Mr. Malhotra’s petition, filed through advocate Jai Dehadrai, has claimed that most public facilities in the Capital are not disabled friendly. He has sought directions to make city roads, government offices and public transport friendly for the differently-abled.
The Bench had earlier remarked that while 50% of all public buildings here were to be made fully disabled friendly by July 2018 under the Accessible India campaign, many public buildings have not been audited yet.
