Monday May 17, 2010

Disabled protest over lack of facilities



By STUART MICHAEL
metro@thestar.com.my
Photos by P.NATHAN

ABOUT 15 disabled people held placards and protested over lack of facilities at the Gombak Land Office at Selayang last Friday.

Headed by Independent Living and Training Centre president Francis Siva, the disabled were unhappy over the ramp and toilet facilities in the building.

“Although the Gombak Land Office building is about 30 years old, the ramp was built five years ago.

“The ramp is too steep for the disabled to use.

“And water from the air-conditioner on the top floor of the building drops exactly on the ramp pathway making it slippery.

“There is no proper toilet facilities for disabled women while the staff at the information countre were unfriendly towards us,’’ he said.

Anthony Thanasayan, a member of Malaysians Against Discrimination of the Disabled (MADD) and an MBPJ councillor said the employees need to be taught manners and about how to treat the disabled.

“They even had police on standby to intimidate us but we just want our rights and voices to be heard,’’ he said.

When asked on the issue, the Gombak Land Office assistant district Administration officer Sahimin Ghazali said Francis came here demanding to see the district officer.

“Our staff at the counter told him that the district officer was not around and told him to see the Revenue assistant district officer, Norazalawati Md Azizi, instead.

“He wanted his quit rent to be reduced from RM50 annually to about RM5,’’

Norazalawati told him to write a letter and she would forward it to the district officer but he refused.

“Francis still insisted on seeing the district officer and I told him that he was in a meeting,” she said.

“Francis then told he would bring about 50 disabled people to hold a protest at the office. And for safety reasons, we stationed police personnel around in case there were any outward incidents,’’ she said.