NEW DELHI: While the Delhi administration is trying to make all government buildings disabled-friendly over the next few years, the person behind the change in attitude, State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities T D Dhariyal faces a daily battle to access his office. Situated in the busy and congested Mata Sundari Road atDaryaganj in Old Delhi, the office of the commissioner for persons with disabilities has an uneven, narrow entrance through a lane crowded with street vendors and vehicles, sometimes even trucks which block all access.
“While I am trying to change the vision of government towards persons with disability, I myself have to fight every single day to gain entrance to the office. It looks bad, and I have written to the government and the Public Works Department one month ago to either clear out the entrance or relocate it, but no one is showing any interest,” Dhariyal told this newspaper.
His office is not just a workspace for the Commissioner but also doubles as a court for hearings cases where people with disabilities seek justice when wronged by the authorities.
According to Dhariyal, it is the neighbouring Maulana Azad Medical College which is to be blamed for his pains, and Dhariyal had met with the PWD, North Delhi Municipal Corporation and Social Welfare department to highlight the issue. As per sources, PWD suggested that the entrance of the office should be shifted towards main Ranjit Singh Road, but some part of the land required for this belongs to Maulana Azad Medical College.
“The college officials stated that they want to build a Child Centre on the land, but that is nowhere to be seen for the past many years and though we offered similar amount of land belonging to us but they said a no, ” Dhariyal said. “We are suffering now, but the health department is sitting with something that is still in the planning stage, despite our case being urgent.”