Access for disabled: Authorities pulled up

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said the authorities do not understand the meaning of "disabled access audit" and directed all the government agencies to put forth a list of buildings which are disabled-friendly.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar also ordered them to give a list of those buildings where "disabled access audit" has been undertaken, thereby asking to indicate the measures taken after the audit was carried out.

The court said that authorities have filed the status reports "without understanding" the meaning of the audit and the requirements for making buildings accessible to differently-abled persons.

The court's observation came after it read the status report by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) which claimed that its buildings were disabled-friendly as they all had ramps.

"Only ramps? Have you got disability audit done? What will a visually-impaired person do with ramps," it asked.

The bench also pointed at the status report of the Centre and said that even though the audit was conducted, no measures have been taken thereafter. It asked the authorities to explain the measures undertaken for physically disabled as well as visually and auditory-impaired persons.

It asked the Delhi Police to give a status on the audit of its buildings, including all the police stations here.