BANDIPORA: The civil secretariat in north Kashmir’s Bandipora has constantly been criticised due to lack of facilities for disabled people – which according to locals is disheartening.
Despite utilising corers of rupees in developing three separate structures “the buildings department seems to have forgotten the rule book as this place of pubic dealing”, locals here rue.
The plaster from the roofs of this five-year-old structure constantly comes off with washrooms and developing seepage and tiles splitting up from the concrete.
“The constructing agency was supposed to develop ramps for disabled people but there is no facility available for them. Yet even the lifts installed in the secretariat have never been operational due to the reasons best
known to the administration,” a handicapped youth – not wishing to be named – told Kashmir Reader.
Anguished at the administration particularly Roads and Buildings Department, several handicapped youths expressed their anger by expressing the hardships they were facing while trying to resolve their grievances and reaching
out to the office bearers.
Zahoor Ahmad Lone, 35 who is a teacher by profession and is handicapped in one of the legs expressed his resentment and appealed to make the lifts operational after walking three flights of stairs to the National Informatics
Center at the second floor of the Secretariat.
“The lifts at Secretariat are non-functional and the specially-abled people like me have to walk to the second floor for the work. Even I myself had to walk to the second floor the other day. So, I as a concerned citizen
appeal the district administration to make the lifts functional as soon as possible,” he said.
Azhar-ud-Din Chouhan, 25, who is Vice President of Handicapped association Bandipora said, “All our men have to face various difficulties. Our offices are located at places which are unreachable for us, the medical board for
us is also located in the third floor of the secretariat.”
The Social Welfare office which has a lot of dealing with handicapped people is located in the outskirts of the town area. “The off the spot location has been a cause of concern for us and it is very difficult to run from
one office to another,” they complained.
Marking all the complaints as genuine, the additional deputy commissioner Bandipora said, “ I have myself noticed that the lifts are non-functional. The issue of lifts will be taken with our constructing agency which is R&B.
The instructions have been already forwarded to District social welfare officer to relocate the office in the town area at ground level so that handicapped and old aged get some relief. The communication has been forwarded
and the matter will be resolved within a week. About the Medical Board at third the CMO has been told to shift it to the ground floor”.

Reader correspondent