CHENNAI: Disability rights activists want the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) to make the public toilet near the Saidapet Metropolitan Magistrates Court on Taluk Office Road accessible to persons with disabilities. While there are wheelchair accessible pathway from the footpath to the toilets, it is absent for the footpath from the road, making it inaccessible to wheelchair users.
M Selvam, an activist and wheelchair user, said he could not access the toilet recently due to the lack of a ramp from Taluk Office Road. “The civic body seems to construct ramps and facilities at toilets just for the sake of it, without checking whether they will be practically usable. When they have built a ramp on both sides of this toilet, and the platform is also wide enough and usable, why have they not constructed a ramp from the road to the footpath?” he asked.
The activist said, every week they hold sports training sessions for persons with disabilities at an NGO in Kotturpuram. “So many of them travel along this stretch. Making it accessible will be helpful for us,” he said.
When contacted, an official from the GCC said the issue would be looked into.