The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notices the Delhi Government, the New Delhi Municipal Council, the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi, the Delhi Police and the Delhi Development Authority on a public interest litigation seeking directions to make the Capital’s roads friendly for the visually and hearing-impaired pedestrians.
The petitioner, Vinod Kumar Bansal, through his lawyer Sitab Ali Chaudhary, submitted that due to non-installation of auditory traffic signals, pavements without curbs and cuts and slopes for easy plying of wheel-chairs and zebra crossings without engravings, visually-impaired pedestrians or ones with low vision felt huge inconvenience while walking in the city.
Absence of ramps at public buildings put the physically-challenged people at great inconvenience in accessing there, the petition stated.
The petitioner further submitted that he moved the Court after the authorities concerned failed to take any action on his representations for making the life of these their people problem-free in the Capital.
The State is under the relevant law expected to ensure non-discrimination in public transport adapt rail compartments, buses, vessels, aircraft and waiting rooms in such a way as to make them comfortably accessible to the physically-challenged persons, the petition said.
The petitioner rued that the government authorities had taken no action despite The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) ACT, 1995 mandating it to provide these facilities to the visually and hearing impaired and physically-challenged persons.
The petitioner also raised the unauthorised parking of cars on the pavements causing inconvenience to the pedestrians and urged the Court to direct the authorities concerned to remove the encroachment.
He drew the attention of the Court to the parking of vehicles on road sides which obstructed the movement of ambulances and fire tenders which at times delayed rushing of patients to hospitals for treatment.
Later, a Division Bench of Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Siddharth Mridul asked the respondents to file their replies by May 26.
