In a reported effort to upkeep the law, City Hall on Wednesday said that its decision to demolish the ramp leading to the Teleperformance Parking Lot was based on, among other things, primarily the fact that elevating just one section of the pavement would be dangerous to the differently-able community, especially those who are visually impaired.
Public Relations Officer of M&CC, Debra Lewis, supported Town Clerk Royston King on Wednesday and told sections of the media that M&CC has to be sensitive to the needs of the differently-able community and the ramp was a hindrance to them.
It is heartening that the Mayor and City Council has finally seen the necessity to take the needs of those living with disability into consideration but this latest action in the name of those living with disability is a hilariously hypocritical position. The public can recall a mere two weeks ago, the very City Hall, that is working in collaboration with Smart City Solutions, the parking meter company, had erected parking meters near the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre on Carmichael Street, Georgetown. The Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre is a facility that facilitates the enhancing of the lives of persons living with disabilities. It is a Centre where on a daily basis it provides rehabilitative services, including physiotherapy, special education, speech therapy to our special needs persons in society. Were the needs of those living with disability, who frequent the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre, taken into consideration by City Hall and its associates when they erected the parking meters in that area? The National Disability Commission had also complained about the placement of the meters, noting that their presence in the middle of parapets were hazardous to disabled persons.
According to the laws of Guyana under the National Disability Act, the construction of any facilities that would impact negatively on disabled persons is prohibited.
The Act also states that the Commission shall collaborate with public or Private Sector agencies to ensure the attainment of a barrier-free environment that will enable persons with disabilities to have access to public or private buildings and establishments. The fact that the parking meters were erected in the Cty and more so in an area where differently-abled person frequent, displays in itself that there were no consultations with the National Commission on Disability (NCD) on this matter. It was after Guyana Times and other sections of the media highlighted the grave injustice to persons living with disability that the company decided to meet with the NCD. This shows utter disrespect to our brothers and sisters living with disabilities. It is unfortunate that Government itself did not recognise that City Hall and its contracted parking meter company were trampling on disabled persons in our society, whose rights are protected both locally and internationally. This in itself highlights that no proper consultations were done on this projected with was imposed on citizens.
As a matter of fact, it is the lack of consultation that led to the widespread criticisms of the secretive parking meter project from the inception with prominent persons in society describing it as a “get-rich-quick scheme”, given the capricious and tenuous strategies and justifications provided for some aspects of the project.
City Hall cannot use the differently-able community as a toy to carry out its master plan. It is an insult to persons living with disabilities.
