Free movement for differently-abled

Consumers expect the government and those in power to treat them with respect and grant them their due rights. Those with handicaps, in particular, need sensitive handling and must not be inconvenienced. However, people with disabilities are many a time made to run from pillar to post to get their work done.

Take the case of Jagdish Motwani, a physically handicapped person who has trouble in walking due to a defect in his lower limbs. Motwani believes in living independently and has a job in a Public Sector Organisation.

When he went to register a sidecar for his scooter (which was essential for him due to his handicap), the authorities in the Motor Vehicle Department in Mumbai told him that the Government of Maharashtra has banned registration of two wheelers with a sidecar since 2003. Undeterred, Motwani tried to find out what the reasons were for such a ban and was able to gather some shocking findings.

First, what came to light from the feisty fighter’s research is that, Maharashtra is the only state which has enforced such a ban on the use of sidecars with two wheelers. Further, when he pressed the authorities for the rules for such a ban, he was told that all attachments to vehicles, which are not part of the original vehicle, necessarily need the approval of statutory authorities like the Automobile Research Association of India (ARAI), Pune, Vehicle Research Design Establishment (VRDE), Ahmednagar and Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT), Pune.

Letters to these authorities revealed that the prototype of sidecars used with two wheelers do not need testing by these authorities. Confirmatory letters stating the same were also issued by the authorities. 

Motwani also points out that trailers, which are attached to other vehicles, are not subjected to such tests and scrutiny. In addition, the concept of additional wheels to a two wheeler (in the case of the handicapped) or the attachment of a sidecar are not new or untested technologies that require so much vacillation and scrutiny by the Motor Vehicles Department.

On June 4, 2007, the Under Secretary to the Department of Transport wrote to Motwani in reply to a query raised by him stating that the ban on the use of sidecars is ‘under the consideration of a sub-committee of the Ministry’.

The issue at stake here is the mobility and simplicity, which the sidecar provides to the handicapped in being mobile. It is a well-established bureaucratic norm to presume that a consumer who comes to enforce his rights is to be treated like a potential troublemaker. Will somebody in the corridors of power wake up and expedite the
decision, please?