Now 30 police stations in Pune to become senior citizen-friendly

To make police stations disabled- and senior citizen- friendly, RampMyCity, a Bangalore-based accessibility startup, will be erecting metal and aluminium ramps at all 30 police stations under the city commissioner. Most police stations in Pune do not have ramps for wheelchairs which makes them out of reach for differently abled- and senior- citizens.

Additional commissioner (admin) Arvind Chawariya in his communication to all police station in-charges, said, “All concerned police officials must extend their cooperation to the ramp service provider setting up metallic and aluminium ramps at all police stations and police administrative offices under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) scheme. The entity has been given permission for installation of the same.” The initiative has also been sanctioned by Pune police commissioner Amitesh Kumar.

President of the Disabled Persons’ Association Rafique Khan welcomed the Pune police initiative and said, “It is mandatory to have ramps in all the government buildings and not many officials have bothered about ramps. The wheel chair ramps being erected at the police stations by the present commissioner is a big step in the direction of making government offices accessible to the physically challenged.”

Under the Scheme for Implementation of Persons with Disabilities Act 1995 (SIPDA), the ministry of social justice and empowerment provides grants-in-aid to all states and union territories to provide a barrier-free environment in important government buildings like the state secretariat, and other important state-level offices; collectorates, state university buildings, campuses, medical colleges and main hospitals at divisional headquarters; and other important government buildings for persons with disabilities as per section 46 of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal opportunities, protection of rights and full participation of rights) Act 1995 (PwD Act). This includes provision for ramps, rails, lifts, adaptation of toilets for wheelchair users, braille signage and auditory signals, tactile flooring, etc. Sections 44, 45 and 46 of the PwD Act deal with non-discrimination in transport, non-discrimination on the road, and non-discrimination in the built environment, respectively. All establishments, appropriate government and local authorities are mandated by these provisions of the PwD Act to take, within the limits of their economic capacity, measures for providing easy accessibility to persons with disabilities in a non-discriminatory manner.

The ministry of social justice and empowerment as well as the chief commissioner for persons with disabilities (CCPD) from time to time request the state governments and union territories to provide barrier-free access to public places by constructing ramps, lifts and railings. The CCPD has written to all chief secretaries of states/union territories among other things to take concrete and time-bound steps to enforce accessibility standards and guidelines. The CCPD also takes up with the concerned state government authorities as and when non-availability of facilities for access to public places for persons with disabilities comes to the fore.