Kanchan Pamnani Advocate & Solicitor 9, Suleman Chambers, Battery Street, Colaba, Mumbai - 400 039.
----- Original Message ----- From: Meenakshi Balasubramaniam To: Dlu South ; VIDYA SAGAR ; DRA Tamil Nadu ; sudha ; sudha ramamoorthy ; shivani gupta ; Shivani Gupta ; srinu vasulu ; Sruti Mohapatra ; Paul Ramanathan ; Bhargavi Davar ; Val Resh ; Kanchan Pamnani ; Pooja Parvati ; Syamala G ; shanti auluck ; Aarth Astha ; Poonam Natarajan ; Murali Padmanabhan ; AS NARAYANAN ; Zorin Singha ; Deaf Enabled ; Rajiv Rajan ; Amba Salelkar Cc: Javed Abidi ; Dorodi Sharma Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2013 4:25 PM Subject: Commitment to the disability sector in the railway budget Dear All, Greetings! Promises made to the sector in the Railway Budget: "Madam Speaker, India is a signatory to the UN Convention on the rights of the disabled. We are conscious of our responsibility under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). To facilitate the boarding of trains and exit from the stations for the differently-abled and the elderly, the steps proposed include provision of 179 escalators and 400 lifts at A-1 and other major stations, affixing Braille stickers indicating the layout of coaches including toilets, provision of wheel chairs and battery operated vehicles at more stations and making coaches wheel-chair friendly. In order to provide an employment avenue to the disabled people, I propose to reserve a specified number of JTBS for them, keeping in view the fact that the PCOs at stations have become largely redundant after the mobile revolution in India". "concerted efforts to fill up approximately 1.52 lakh vacancies this year. It is a measure of popularity of railways as an employer that a staggering 2.2 crore applications were received. For the first time, Railway recruitment examinations were held at more than 60 cities across the country. In the process, a backlog of about 47,000 vacancies earmarked for weaker sections and physically challenged is likely to get cleared" . http://ibnlive.in.com/news/full-text-pawan-kumar-bansals-railway-budget-201314-speech/375226-37-64.html The paragraphs on a. passenger amenities: does not mention the amenities made inclusive and follow universal design standards. b. IT enabled services: are silent to the web accessibility standards requirement, online booking allowing booking concessional tickets by passengers with disabilities and other listed services inclusive. c. Ticket Reservation: There is no mention of accessible e-ticketing facility even while talking about the next speed and capacity of the system. d. Catering: The toll free number for complaint has not included complaints through messages for use by Deaf people. e. Rail Tourism: There is no mention of accessibility while the designing the executive lounge at Delhi. "The train will be made attractive and affordable through concessional fares", . There is no mention of accessibility. f. Staff: The staff amenities such as the quarters and hostel has no mention of accessibility. g. Skill Development: this section also does not talk about including persons with disabilities / any marginalised groups. h. Rail Heritage: There is a plan to revamp the museum for the benefit of children. it is a question if it will be inclusive. Please do add. Thanks & Regards Meenakshi.B Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in 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
