Bhubaneswar: The state government is now publicly accepting the fact that they have failed to meet the Centre’s deadline on Accessible India Campaign (AIC), which mandates making more than half of the public buildings in the state capital and other cities disabled-friendly.
This comes in the wake of a petition filed by a after the Supreme Court order on the case Rajive Raturi Vrs Union of India. The court has strictly asked the states to adhere to the deadline and ensure making the public buildings disabled-friendly.
Recently, the state Social Security and Empowerment of the Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) Department, in a letter to the Chief Engineer (Works Department), has accepted the fact that they have missed the deadline and works needed to be expedited to adhere to the AIC norms and also comply with the SC order relating to the matter.
The letter states, “According to Centre’s Accessible India Campaign, 50 per cent of all public buildings in state capital are to be made fully accessible to people with disability by July, 2018, while the remaining 50 per cent of the public buildings in 10 most important cities/towns of state are to be made fully accessible by July, 2019. But both these deadlines are not met.”
The department later also cited the SC judgment in the case and asked the Works Department to keep the SSEPD Department in loop relating to the progress made in making the public buildings disabled-friendly.
The letter further stated, “It is, therefore, requested to identify, undertake access audit and subsequent retrofitting work of 50 per cent of all public buildings at 10 towns/districts – Cuttack, Puri, Balasore, Baripada, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Bolangir, Jharsugda, Berhampur and Jeypore.”
“Earlier in 2015 while launching the scheme, in its strategy paper, the Centre fixed the deadline of making a number of government buildings in the state capital disabled-friendly by July 2016, which was later extended to 2018 as the accessibility audit was delayed and because the Centre did not release to the state owing to non-compliance of building design funds,” an official involved in the implementation of the scheme told Orissa POST requesting anonymity.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court had ordered, “…Since, this deadline is set by the AIC itself, this should be met. In any case, as per the provisions of Section 46 of the Disabilities Act, 2016, all government buildings providing any services to the public are to be made fully accessible by June, 2019 which has to be adhered to.” According to the SC order and the new legislation norms, the state is now bound to make all government buildings disabled-friendly by June, 2019.
Manish Kumar, OP
