Hello All Forwarding yet another deplorable incident. Harish Kotian.
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of National Platform For The Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) Sent: 23 February 2012 15:26 To: National Platform For The Rights of the Disabled Delhi Subject: Another disabled air passenger, another harrowing experience Following the deplorable offloading of Jeeja Ghosh, we have today received a mail from Anjlee Agarwal of Smarthyam of the unwarranted harassment and harrowing experience at the hands of the Jet Airways Personnel. Reproduced below is the mail sent by Anjlee Agarwal. Deal All, Followed by the incident of Jeeja with Spice Jet, the very next day I was harrassed by Jet Connect on 20th Feb. flight 9W 2211 from Delhi to Raipur. At Delhi airport. I was asked by the boarding pass issuer, if "I am fit to fly". When I asked him, "what do you mean", he stared at me and asked me to sign an indeminity bond. When I refused to do that, he said, "its our rule and you canot fly without signing this". I had to sign it, as I could not afford to miss the flight. Raipur airport: Inspite of airlines crew assurance of getting an aisle chair on board, the flight supervisor, Niranjan Sen at Raipur pressurised me to be bodily lifted by four male loaders with the excuse that while deboarding at Raipur- they do not have aisle chairs in smaller cities. Hence I was "ordered" to be bodily lifted till the gate of the aircraft and then transferred to the big wheechair and then carried down the steps. 2. On my protest to the above, he threatened me that they will not de-board me instead will take me back to Delhi as the flight was going back to Delhi and in midst of all this commotion, flight attendants asked passengers to board the flight, before I de-boarded. 3. I kept fighting for making an aisle chair available and I refused to both- "bodily lifting and carried back to Delhi". 4. Meanwhile junior supervisor, started harrassing me by saying that I have not put a request for wheelchair while booking the tickets. When I said that I did made a wheelchair request at The Delhi airport and also while booking tickets, he said that "wheelchairs users cannot book tickets through web booking". This came as a bigger shock to me because I did book tickets online and with wheelchair request. 4. The fight continued for 35 minutes and when they found that I will not give up, a "Jet airways" aisle chair appeared. With ruthlessness and extreme rudeness, I was transferred into the aisle chair and "literally thrown down" the steps, as if they are all trying to get rid of me. I think, it is quite obvious that what airlines do is book tickets, make money, and treat disabled passengers as "noonincoops" to be loaded by loaders, as if we are "sack of vegetables". There is no rule, no training and no courtesy for disabled passengers. Private airlines make us sign an ideminity bond, wherein its clearly written that Airlines will not take any responsibility of the passenger. Now, it is time for the entire disability sector to join hands and stand up aganinst the "airlines" and ask them to come up with uniform and dignified policy/guidelines for disabled passengers and SHOULD pay heavy price for violation. The CAR guidelines are available at: http://dgca.nic.in/cars/D3M-M1.pdf And international guidelines are available at: http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr;rgn=div5;view=text;node=14%3A4.0.1.4.64;idno=14;sid=eff368ba6cd1f01cb4e0f4cba6a3cc5e;cc=ecfr#14:4.0.1.4.64.2 In solidarity, Anjlee Agarwal Executive Director & Access Consultant SAMARTHYAM National Centre for Accessible Environments A project of Samarthyam Trust (Regd. No. 35922) * B-181, Mansarovar Garden, New Delhi-110015, India * Telefax: +91-11-41019389 (M) +91-9810558321 * Email: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> * Website: www.samarthyam.org<http://www.samarthyam.org/> * Blog: http://samarthyaindia.blogspot.com<http://samarthyaindia.blogspot.com/> Universal Design | Architectural Access | Research | Training | Adaptive Design LET'S MAKE THE WORLD ACCESSIBLE This is disgusting and needs to be condemned by the entire disability sector vehemently. Like many other cases that happen every other day, Anjlee's case has also gone unreported in the mainstream media. And this despite her being an activist, fully conscious of her rights and her vehement protests. So Spicejet is not alone. Neither is Kingfisher or Jet. They all are in the same boat, with as Anjlee rightly observing "money" being their only motive. The CCD, MSJE, the Civil Aviation Minister and others need to address this issue and see that a stop is put it immediately. We are with you Anjlee. Muralidharan Assistant Convener National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled ________________________________ Notice: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, use, review, distribution, printing or copying of the information contained in this e-mail message and/or attachments to it are strictly prohibited. If you have received this email by error, please notify us by return e-mail or telephone and immediately and permanently delete the message and any attachments. The recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. The Reserve Bank of India accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email. 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