Kathmandu, March 28

Around 60 persons with disabilities gathered with pick-axe and hammer and demolished the newly constructed pavement at Jorpati, where the office of Nepal Disabled Association is located, in a symbolic protest today.

For persons with disabilities, getting out of the house  and moving around the city is almost unimaginable due to lack of disabled-friendly infrastructure. Protesters, who were between the ages of 15 and 50 years, demanded that the government construct disabled-friendly roads.

Construction of the Chabahil-Sankhu road has resumed after almost four years. However, it is still not being constructed in a way to facilitate movement of persons with disabilities. Nearly, 1,000 persons with disabilities live in Jorpati area. “The government did not heed our request to construct a disabled-friendly road,” said Rishi Dhakal, coordinator of a campaign launched by people with disabilities. He said they also visited the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Department of Roads and Kathmandu Valley Road Improvement Project with their concerns.

Amrit Rana, 18, who also took part in the protest said he commuted from Jorpati to Narayantar, where his college is located, in wheelchair everyday. Rana has spinal cord injury and is preparing for the Grade XI final examination. “It takes me 15 minutes to reach college from my hostel, but the road is bumpy, dusty and does not have pavement.”

The pavements along the road section is supposed to be two-metre wide.

, Vice-chairman of Nepal Disabled Association Bharat Timilsina said, “More than a 1,000 people with disabilities live in Jorpati area, which also has organisations, hostels, rehabilitation centre, vocational training centres and hospitals for disabled people. So the road must be disabled-friendly,” said Dhakal.