Raw deal for city's physically challenged

CHANDIGARH: The city may boast of being one of the most developed and citizen friendly cities in the country, but on ground, it has only become unfriendly for people with disabilities. With no platforms set up at many of its important buildings, no special access at community parks or on roads, the city makes it a tough task for disabled people to commute.
Many complain that Chandigarh, earlier, had wide footpaths, where disabled people could be taken on a wheel chair, but such open spaces are no longer seen, particularly in the internal areas of various sectors.
"Recently, administration officials dismantled the footpaths in my area for widening the roads in my sector. It hasn't served the purpose as people have started parking vehicles in that widened space, but we are forced to take our wheel chair on the road, with people driving around rashly all the time," said Sector 21 resident Harman Singh Sidhu, who is most of the times confined to his wheel chair.
He rued that even the buildings of Chandigarh administration do not offer a smooth ride to the disabled people. "Though we have a lift in the administrator's office in Sector 9, but one has no option but climb stairs to reach his office. A similar problem persists at the municipal corporation office in Sector 17," he pointed out. Some of people with disabilities find even the community parks unfriendly for them.
Chandigarh may boast of being one of the most developed and citizen friendly cities in the country, but on ground, it has only become unfriendly for people with disabilities.
With no platforms set up at many of its important buildings, no special access at community parks or on roads, the city makes it a tough task for a disabled people to commute.
"In our sector's park, there is no arrangement to take a wheelchair inside. Some area residents had to resort to illegally breaking a wall to make away for wheelchairs," said Sakshi Bhasin, a BA student from Sector 26. Besides, several offices of Punjab and Haryana governments located on the first or second floors of showrooms on the Madhya Marg and in Sector 17, do not have any provision of easy access for disabled people.
"I usually have to visit the state information commission office in Sector 8. First of all, there is no lift in the building and secondly, even the stairs are so narrow that one can't even lift the wheelchair and carry it upstairs," said Sector 40 resident Sushil Verma, who faces difficulty in mobility due to a problem with his right leg.