Times
of India: Ahmedabad: Tuesday, 07 April 2015.
For the last
seven years, Sursinh Solanki, a disabled waist down, has been fighting
relentlessly for making buildings, public spaces and institutions barrier free.
Right from
the recent structural additions to the Gujarat University campus making rooms
accessible, raising awareness at railway stations in Vadodara and Ahmedabad,
ensuring that PSU banks and RBI buildings in various Gujarat cities follow
norms of barrier free construction and making temples accessible to asking
police stations to add features to their buildings that make them accessible,
Solanki has been using RTI to penetrate through the tough bureaucratic system.
Solanki is a
software consultant with an engineering firm and is a Satellite resident. Few
months ago, he forced the Gujarat University engineering department to make the
ground floor of the main building accessible. Recently, ICICI Bank had assured
him that they would make maximum number of its branches and their ATMs
accessible for the disabled.
Solanki's RTI
had led the Vadodara Railway Station authorities to create a separate parking
lot for the disabled. Also, the Ahmedabad Railway Station had made provisions
for making certain public areas accessible for the disabled. "Today, my
fight is with the transport authorities to make buses accessible. Till this day
buses have steps — AMTS and state transport. While a disabled person,
especially on the wheel chair can't enter the BRTS corridor without help,"
he explained.
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