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Wednesday 23 October 2013

Award-winning pandals were inaccessible to differently abled

They may have bagged several awards and achieved popularity among visitors for their impressive artwork, puja pandals across the state were totally impassive and had no provision for the differently abled, a survey conducted by the students-led organisation called Civilian Welfare Foundation has revealed.

Members said most pandals did not even cater to the basic requirements of the special visitors. "There was absence of wheelchairs. And in cases where wheelchairs were present, there was no ramp for them. Even the organisers did not have any answer," said Dhimoyee Debnath, secretary, CWF.


She said the survey focused on three things — presence of wheelchairs, ramps for the chairs and dedicated volunteers for the differently abled — and was conducted at pujas that registered an average footfall of four lakh a day during the celebratory days.


While several big names such as Salt Lake FD Block, Jodhpur Park etc failed miserably in all three categories, relatively smaller ones such as Podder Park Sarbojonin Durgotsav Committee managed to meet all the basic requirements.


"Several committees initially admitted to have met with the requirements but failed to prove it when CWF members visited the pandal. There were some who said people with physical disabilities didn't visit pandals during pujas," Debnath said.


Source : Indian Express , 22nd October 2013

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