NEW DELHI: The
Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up the Centre for not making government buildings and public places accessible to the
differently-abled in line with the law and sought to know the steps taken by it during the last seven months after the court had passed a series of directions.
A bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said the Centre had not done anything in compliance of its December order to bring the differently-abled, who number around 60-70 million, into the mainstream and create a level-playing field for them as envisaged in the
Disability Act.
"You have not addressed anything in your affidavit....We had asked you to give us a plan on how you propose to implement it. We are not running the government. It is your responsibility but 6-7 months have passed and nothing happened," the bench said.
Additional solicitor general Pinky Anand told the bench that the government had taken a series of measures in compliance of the apex court's order and sought time to file a comprehensive affidavit.
Placing the compliance report before the court, advocate Rajan Mani, appearing for petitioner Rajiv Raturi, said the Centre and states had not enforced most of the directions and only the basic things had been done by them. He said Assam,
Uttarakhand, Tripura,
Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh and Dadar and Nagar Haveli have not even identified the public buildings to make them disabled-friendly.
