Wednesday Briefs

Few of the interesting news items which caught my eye:

1.  Disable unfriendly commercial establishments: One lady socialite along with a lady advocate recently  approached the Bombay High Court over the lack of wheelchair access and other facilities for disabled persons in buildings in Mumbai, including five star hotels, malls, theatres, restaurants and other commercial premises. A 2 judge bench has directed the the Maharashtra Govt and the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation(BMC) to spell out their stand in 3 weeks. The judges said that the law has to be implemented.                                                                     The advocate petitioner argued that as per Development Control Regulations (DCR) and other laws, it is mandatory for public and commercial buildings to be disabled friendly. The disability Act, in fact empowers local authorities to deny completion certificates to establishment, if they fail to provide such facilities. She further added there are so many commercial building in Mumbai who have been issued completion certificates, despite not providing facilities for disabled persons.                                                                                                                     The law stipulates that for a building to be disabled friendly few facilities have to be mandatory and they are– handrails on staircase, ramp at all entrances and lifts so that wheelchair to have smooth access, toilets for disabled persons with wide door for taking wheel chair, grab bars, wash basin at reduced heights and parking near entrance. The Central govt’s guidelines further add that auditory signals at red lights, Kerbs and slopes on pavements for wheelchairs, access to public transport for disabled persons.                                                                                                The petitioner submitted a list of 15 popular city buildings that do not provide basic facilities like ramp, and accessible toilets. She further added that she had approached several govt and private establishments  with a request to them to construct ramps and other facilities so that disabled person can have access to these buildings without any help and experience self reliance  and freedom, but their requests  were disregarded. The petitioner requested the court to direct public and private establishments across the state to install ramps and wheelchair friendly toilets within three months and impose a penalty on places who do not comply.                                                                                                            In my opinion it is a total apathy on the part of local bodies, who are in league with builders and developers. These developers get the completion certificates without completing the things for disabled friendly requirements, forget this requirement, some times they issue the completion certificates even without completion of fire norms.
2. Bad State of Affairs in BMC-The Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is the richest civic body in the country, whose annual budget is many times more than some smaller states in the country. The situation has reached such a level that even a rain 50 mm makes the city flooded with all the transport system limping and even stopping completely. The condition of the roads is pathetic, and during the rains you can not see pot holes, manholes are missing and citizens are falling inside the drains during monsoons and dying,trees are falling on roads and people are getting injured and even dying. Shivsena controlled  civic body is having Rs 60,000 Cr in fixed deposits, but along with that it is carrying a tag of corrupt body. Even in state govt Shivsena is alliance partner with BJP, and there also they are acting funny. They are in the govt or they are opposing govt is not at all clear, considering their conflicting statements. The Environment Minister of Maharashtra, who is from Shivsena brought a proposal to ban plastic to please his party bosses, and state govt because of coalition dharma went along it. There were no proper guide lines from either state govt or BMC regarding how to go about this ban, without even suggesting the suitable alternative which is economical to end users. Now the ban is implemented from 23rd Jun, with high penalty of violation , which starts from Rs 2000, and for this purposes BMC has authorised inspectors area wise, who will fine the violators. In my earlier bog of this  Monday I have given the other details.                                                                                                                    As a Mumbaikar, I feel really bad that my city is becoming hell to live. Every year BMC will say that we are rain ready, and with even 15 mm rain in an hour, all their claims and promise will go down the drain. Their employees do not clean the drains, for them the scapegoat always been that the thin plastic bags who clog the drains and hence their is flooding. My concern is that Govt has banned less 50 micron bags few years back, did BMC saw that these bags are not used by vendors or did they educated the vendors or did they put emphasis on finding suitable alternatives. The answer to all theses questions is simple NO. Some time they will put blame on MMRDA or Metro work which is responsible for floods. Why can’t they co ordinate with all other agencies who are executing work in Mumbai instead of blaming them unilaterally. For Mumbaikars, BMC is responsible for the upkeep of city of Mumbai. PERIOD.

In the end what you say my friends,

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