PWD to conduct audit of all official buildings

In a mega exercise, the Delhi PWD will carry out an audit of all the government buildings constructed by it to find out their accessibility to disabled persons in the capital.

The public works department ( PWD) has set a deadline of auditing buildings by June 30, once the audit is completed, an exercise would be undertaken to make them disabledfriendly. The PWD carries out construction of the Delhi government buildings, including offices, hospitals, schools, among others.

According to the minutes of the meeting held last week, all the buildings and roads built by the state PWD in the city will be made accessible for disabled persons following the directions of the Supreme Court and the Delhi high court.

The Rights of Persons with Disability Act, 2016, mandates all private and government institutions etc to ensure barrier- free spaces and services for differently- abled persons.

Last week, the disability division of the Union ministry of social justice and empowerment had sought data from various departments of the Delhi government and local bodies as regards how many public buildings and places under their jurisdiction were disabledfriendly.

"All buildings are to be audited for providing full accessibility to differentlyabled persons. All the superintending engineers should ensure that tenders for the same have been called and audit is completed by June 30 along with preparations of estimates for the same," stated the minutes.

It stated that the work for making buildings and roads fully accessible should be completed by the end of this year in compliance of the orders of the SC and HC.

"All the CEs will monitor the progress in this regard on weekly/ fortnightly basis," it also stated. At a sensitisation meeting of all the stakeholders in order to make the capital a model accessible city, the disability division of the ministry of social justice and empowerment had asked the government departments and local bodies to come up with a roadmap and allocate funds for the purpose at the earliest.

In Delhi, 23 buildings were identified for making them accessible to disabled persons and the central government has so far released funds for 19 of those.