‘In case of inaccessibility, officers must serve PWDs at convenient place’

NEW DELHI: If a government office is operating from a building or premise which is not accessible to ‘divyangjan’, then the officers concerned should go to the ground floor or another accessible location to serve such people, the court of chief commissioner of persons with disabilities has said.

The ruling of the chief commissioner came after a video of wheelchair-bound Virali Modi going through a harrowing experience on the day of her marriage went viral.

She had to be carried to the second-floor office of a marriage registrar in the city on her wedding day because the building had no lift and the officials refused to come down to complete the formalities.

Following the viral post, Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities Rajesh Aggarwal held a hearing and ruled that despite “very clear statutory mandates” various public buildings and public services are still not made fully accessible.

The court of the chief commissioner for persons with disabilities, in its order on Thursday, said the time limit for making old public buildings accessible is already over and considering that the public services run by the government are generally monopolistic, leaving no choice to the customer or citizen/beneficiary to seek the service elsewhere.