MC couldn’t find the guidelines for creating disabled-friendly environment
26 Jun, 2013The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act was passed by the central government in 1995 and came into force on 7th February 1996. The Act gives fundamental rights to all disabled people in the country for equal opportunity and stipulates a disabled-friendly environment.
In 1998, the central public works department (CPWD) issued the guidelines for the same (Guidelines and Space Standards for Barrier Free Built Environment for Disabled and Elderly Persons) and it was made mandatory for every local body to abide by these guidelines.
However, when an application was filed with the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to know the status of implementation of the guidelines, the reply from the local body stated that no such guidelines could be found. Moreover, in the reply, the municipal corporation also asked the RTI applicant to provide a copy of the guidelines related portion from the act.