Ernakulam set to be friendly for disabled
In its memorandum, the Federation demanded that though many buildings boast lifts, they are yet to have provisions for wheel chair ramps among others.
Kochi: A fresh initiative is on to make government offices and buildings in the district disabled-friendly following a direction from the Local Self Government department which acted on a complaint from the Kerala Wheelchair Rights Federation (KWRF). The Federation, in a memorandum to the LSGD Minister K.T. Jaleel, pointed out that despite an earlier initiative, the public buildings are yet to be “wheel-chair friendly”.
“We’ve got the direction in this regard on August 18. A survey will soon be held to find out the government buildings still lacking facilities like wheelchair ramp and lifts and we’ll then take the necessary action. We’ve converted the Ernakulam district panchayat building and 14 Block offices disabled-friendly under an earlier initiative,” said S Syamalekshmi, Assistant Development Commissioner, Ernakulam.
In its memorandum, the Federation demanded that though many buildings boast lifts, they are yet to have provisions for wheel chair ramps among others. “We’ve requested to deploy at least one wheel chair in main government buildings such as district panchayat and corporation offices. It’s not practical to bring wheel chairs to the offices,” said Santosh Maliyekal, President, KWRF.
“We’ve also raised the issue before the assembly samiti led by P Aisha Potty recently. It was pointed out that only Kannur district has majority of its public buildings disabled-friendly,” he said. On August 10 last, the LSGD has informed the Federation in a written communication that the samiti would inquire into the complaint and ask various departments to file a report on the matter. Earlier, the Kerala Tourism launched a programme in September last year to make Fort Kochi the first disabled-friendly heritage site in the state.