Good job, bad job

NAGPUR: Following the High Court's orders, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation has constructed a ramp for the physically-challenged at the main building in Civil Lines. The ramp constructed adjacent to deputy mayor Shekhar Savarbandhe's office has received appreciation from the unfortunate few who faced a tough time to enter the office in the past.
Project director GD Jambhulkar said, "We have made the building barrier-free as prescribed.A small desk will be put up on the ground floor to ensure that the disabled are not inconvenienced and their issues are addressed here itself. The new building too has a similar ramp."
A team of petitioners and experts from the Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) has studied the building to explore possibilities of making then friendly for the physically handicapped. PN Andhare, a disabled scientist from the city, through his counsel Trupti Udeshi who is also physically handicapped, had filed a plea in this regard.
The petitioner, who is 80% disabled, had filed the PIL through an NGO Indradhanu praying for compliance of Maharashtra government resolution of 2005, which mandated facilities for disabled. Secretary of Indradhanu Prakash Sohoni is another petitioner.
Sohoni was delighted with the development. "We want all the crucial buildings in Nagpur to be barrier-free. We are happy that NMC has at least made a beginning. We have demanded similar ramps in Deshpande hall and ZP office too."
NMC has also created similar ramps in many of its schools like the school in Panchpaoli where it runs a school for special children.
Pointing out several lacunae on the roads and footpaths, the petitioners claimed they were laid in such a way that it became difficult for both the disabled and the elderly to move while encroachments on all footpaths created obstacles in movement.