New buses should meet requirements of disabled: HC

Coming to the aid of physicall-challenged commuters, the Madras High Court has directed the state-run transport corporations in Tamil Nadu to take steps to roll out buses that meet the requirements of people with special needs.
The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice MM Sundresh before which a PIL by one Rajiv Rajan came up for hearing, said "we are of the view that any steps to be taken for the benefit of the persons with special needs have to be inclusive in character.
"The idea cannot be to have separate buses but buses which are used daily by passengers to meet the requirement of persons with special needs," the bench said.

Perusing the report of the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, filed on March 9 last and the memo filed by the amicus curaie appointed by it, the court observed the objective was to make sure all buses in use met the requirements of people with special needs.
This can only happen with procurement of buses that are meant to cater to the people with special needs, the court said directing the Metro Transport Corporation (MTC) and State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) that all new buses to be introduced in the fleets must meet the requirement of people with special needs and as per the norms in consultation with the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities.

In its direction to the counsel for Southern Railway, another respondent, the court accepted the plea of its counsel and granted eight weeks time to file its affidavit setting out a list of the facilities which are in existence and the ones which are proposed to be introduced.

As regard making buildings disabled-friendly, the bench, while mentioning the suggestions made by the amicus curaie, said it had been pointed out that PWD has agreed to implement the norms in any new building to be constructed.
But the problem was of retrofitting the old building, especially larger and taller ones, the court said directing the Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities to file a report within eight weeks after conducting sample surveys to find out whether there was any progress in these matters.

The bench posted the matter to June 28.