Provide free wheelchair, assistance to differently abled at stations: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the Railways to make all possible endeavours to ensure free of charge human assistance and wheelchair are provided to differently abled people at its railway stationsA bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma sought a fresh status report from the authorities with regard to an earlier order on reserving some lower berths for the differently abled as well as giving free assistance to them and said such facilities should at least be provided at the busy stationsThe order was passed on a PIL initiated by the high court in 2017 after a visuallyimpaired man missed his MPhil entrance exam as he could not board a reserved compartment since it was locked from insideThe respondent shall also make all possible endeavours to ensure that free of charge human assistance and wheelchair is provided to differently abled personsiquest said the bench also comprising Justice Subramonium PrasadNoting that these facilities are being provided by the Delhi Metro as well the court added the staterun transport behemoth shall certainly make all endeavours to make these available at maximum number of railway stationsIt is not a big deal at least in busy railway stations At least in the four metros and class A cities it can be provided the court saidAlso Read Coast Guard rescues 19 people from flooded tanker ship off Maharashtra coastSenior advocate S K Rungta who has been appearing as amicus curiae friend of the court in the matter told the bench that at this stage not much was required by way of attachment of coaches and reservation of seats for the differently abled but providing free escort and wheelchair was iqueststill an issueiquestIn July 2017 the high court had on its own initiated a PIL after coming across a news report that the door of a special compartment for the disabled in the Gorakhdham Express was shut with the result that the person missed his MPhil testMincing no words the court had said it was shocked over complete apathy of the Railways in treating its physically challenged passengers by placing the compartments for the disabled at end of the trains and providing little or no help for accessThe court had also said it will explore the possibility of compensation for the youth who has undergone so much trauma for the callous disregard of his rightsThe matter will be heard next on December 7This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever