MARGAO: The Margao Municipal Council (MMC) is considering installation of an elevator to the heritage municipal building to facilitate easy and barrier-free access to persons with disabilities.
For the same, MMC chief officer Agnelo Fernandes has written to the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) to provide clarity over whether the building has been notified as a heritage structure and whether it is located in the designated conservation zone.
The lift to the two-storey building is intended to enable persons with disabilities barrier-free access to the first floor which houses the offices of the chief officer and the chairperson, besides the accounts, taxation, sanitary and births and deaths registration sections.
Sources said that the MMC has also invited quotations from reputed agencies for installation of the elevator.
The Disability Rights Association of Goa (DRAG) had earlier written to the MMC pointing out that as the building was not accessible to persons with disabilities as mandated under section 46 of the Persons with Disabilities Act 1995, provision of a lift in the building was necessary. The Act mandates that all public buildings should be made accessible for persons with disabilities within 5 years of the Act being notified, which was done in 2017.
President of DRAG, Avelino De Sa had, in the letter to the MMC, also pointed out that the heritage buildings aren’t exempted from the Act as India is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.