Despite the High Court of Karnataka’s directive, the state government fails to provide reserved parking space to disabled people.
By Yumna Ahmed
A large number of city metro stations lack reserved parking space for disabled people despite the High Court order, showed a survey conducted by The Softcopy. “There are two places reserved for the disabled people. the contractors have been given strict order to provide parking spaces for them,” said Vasant Rao, Chief Public relations officer (CPRO) of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL).
As per a report, the Baiyappanahalli metro station has two spaces reserved for disabled people but The Softcopy survey shows that the earmarked spaces for the differently abled were used by other vehicles, leaving no space for the former to park their wheels There were no signboards to guide them either.
Salim, a contractor of Baiyappanahalli parking space said, “If disabled people come, we provide the space, we do not have any reserved parking system for disabled. The government has not given any such order to us.”
Santosh, a contractor of the Vijayanagar metro parking space, said, “We do not have any reserved parking space for disabled people. We generally arrange space for them if they come.”
T.L Ravi Prakash, senior manager of public relations in the BMRCL office contradicted the CPRO’s statement about reserved parking space.
He said, “We do not have any reserved parking space for disabled people and we are looking into this matter to solve the problem. We will take this issue to the senior management and soon all metro stations will have reserved parking space.”
The Supreme Court in 2017 had ordered that there should be two or three reserved spaces for disabled people near the building entrance.
Experts have also mentioned about the lack of ramps for disabled people in government offices. Suresh, a contractor of Mysore road metro station said, “Physically challenged people come once in a while so we do not have reserved spots for them. If we reserve a place for the disabled, then people will fight with us for space.”
“It’s unfortunate that there is no respect for disabled people in our society. Despite the laws and orders from the court the implementing agency never takes it seriously and the media should highlight this matter, “said activist Srinivas Alavilli of citizens of Bangalore
