CDA bureaucracy: Opening of park for the disabled blocked

[LRE]

CDA bureaucracy: Opening of park for the disabled blocked

* Carpeting of 500-metre dirt track leading to the facility still not done

By Jamila Achakzai

ISLAMABAD: Bureaucratic inertia at Capital Development Authority (CDA) headquarters has blocked the opening of a park for special persons at Fatima Jinnah Park.

After having readied the park for opening three years ago, the Directorate General of Special Education (DGSE) has been awaiting for carpeting of a dirt track leading to the facility, the first of its kind in the South Asian region.

The 500-meter track is full of bumps disallowing wheelchairs to roll over it. Thus, the park spread over 12,000 square yards area is inaccessible to people with physical disabilities.

According to the sources, during the last three years the DGSE has made several written and verbal requests to CDA for construction of the track but the civic authority is paying no heed.

A DGSE official blamed red tape for this delay. He said every time CDA authorities made false promises of carpeting the track.

He said secretary, Ministry of Special Education, had discussed the matter with CDA chairman and as a result the civic body started work on the track, but stopped it after a while.

This park for special persons took ten years to complete at the cost of Rs 30.42 million, he said.

The directorate plans to handover the park to some non-governmental organisation (NGO) for maintenance, as we’re unable to take care of it due to unavailability of funds, said the official, adding, the project’s annual recurring expenditure stood at Rs 2.77 million, including Rs 0.62 million for building/facilities maintenance and Rs 60,000 for land rent to CDA.

The park includes a recreational and play area, a restaurant, kiosks, amphitheatre, display hall, bird cages, separate rooms for indoor games like billiard, table tennis and badminton and fun areas, a jogging track, footpaths with railing, curvilinear pathways, camping site, specially-designed benches/chairs for physically-challenged people, ponds and fountain, said the official.

Fire safety and light alarms have also been installed in the park, he added.

A top official of DGSE told Daily Times that the basic theme behind creating the park was to give special persons a feeling that disability was no bar to outdoor recreation and play.

He said since there’s no exclusive park for special persons in the country, the project would provide people with physical, mental, visual or hearing impairment a recreational premises.

It will also help create public awareness of participation of disabled people in social gatherings, he said.

He said the park, which had been designed in view of physical and psychological constraints of special persons, would serve as a model for others to carry out similar projects throughout the country.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...008_pg11_1