Maintain tactile paths for blind: Delhi HC

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Thursday ruled that maintenance of tactile paths on city pavements be taken up on a “war footing”, so that the new facilities can be accessed by the visually impaired.

A bench of acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar said the Delhi government and the Municipal Corporations of Delhi (MCD) should take up a pilot project of making the South and North campuses of the Delhi University (DU) disabled-friendly.

It also the senior officials government and civic bodies to physically inspect the spot and prepare an action plan to ensure immediate steps in this regard.

 “Continuity of the tactile marks on pavements should ensure easy navigation by any person/s, especially the visually impaired,” the bench also said.

The court also added that it did not want a policy for this, but the issue “has to be addressed a war-footing”.

The obstructions in the form of potholes, poles and shopping kiosks on pavements, in the North Campus also led the bench to take the civic body officials to task for their “criminal negligence”.

The bench termed the situation as “distressing” as the tactile markings on the pavements were “replete with obstructions”, including pillars, hoardings and signboards.

The bench also asked the Delhi government’s public works department, North and South Delhi Municipal Corporation  (SDMC) to conduct an inspection and file their status report before the next date of hearing on March 6.

The observations and directions came during the hearing of a public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed in the court by a student of Delhi University, Himanshu Goswami, who has sought the removal of encroachments and maintaining of tactile pavements in the national capital.