MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday, October 4, 2021, sought a response from the Centre and State on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed to make all railway stations and train compartments in Southern districts of the State easily accessible to senior citizens and persons with disabilities.
The litigant, KR Raja of Madurai, a PwD, submitted that despite the guidelines prescribed in the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, and Supreme Court judgments, railway stations in Tamil Nadu are not fully accessible for PwDs.
Narrating his ordeal at the Egmore Railway Station in Chennai, he said he was made to wait for nearly an hour before being provided a wheelchair; at the Madurai Railway Junction, he had to pay `350 to a porter to take him to a platform. A Bench comprising Justices M Duraiswamy and K Murali Shankar directed the Union and State governments to file a counter affidavit in the matter and adjourned the case to November 18.