s slow progress by Ministries Four years after the Accessible India Campaign was launched to make public offices, transport and websites accessible to persons with disabilities (PwD), officials said at a recent review meeting that the number of buildings of the Central Public Works Department across the country, and websites of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) were not known. https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/no-tally-of-govt-buildings-to-be-made-accessible/article30779101.ece During the review by Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot on December 19, 2019, a Department of Empowerment of PwD official said the “total buildings either under maintenance or owned by CPWD are not known”, minutes of the meeting recorded. All these buildings, along with other projects being implemented by other Ministries, are supposed to be made accessible by March 2020.
An official of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, under which the CPWD operates, said 787 out of 889 buildings had been made accessible so far, while approval for 13 buildings had been received from various Ministries and work would be started. “For the remaining 89 buildings, approval of respective Ministries is still awaited,” the minutes said. On government websites, Mr. Gehlot reiterated the target to make at least 50% of the sites accessible. “However, the quantum of websites i.e. total no. of government websites is not known,” the minutes said, adding that Mr. Gehlot directed the MeitY to find out the total number of the Central and State government websites. Status of airports With regard to transportation, the Minister noted that while there had been progress on making airports accessible, all aspects of air travel, including aircraft and buses used to ferry passengers from terminals, needed to be compatible. An official of the Civil Aviation Ministry said all 35 international airports and 55 domestic airports under the Airports Authority of India had been made accessible by providing ramps, and had accessible toilets and provision for audio and Braille commands in lifts. A Railways official said 7,000 wheelchairs had been provided at major stations and 22 stations had online booking of wheelchair facility. The Minister expressed concern after the Ministry of Road Transport told him that only 3.6% of buses had been made fully accessible. -- सादर/ Regards अविनाश शाही/ Avinash Shahi सहायक/ Assistant मानव संसाधन प्रबंध विभाग/ Human Resource Management Department भारतीय रिजर्व बैंक/ Reserve Bank of India लखनऊ क्षेत्रीय कार्यालय/Lucknow RO विस्तार/ Extension: 2232 Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
