PANAJI: Despite letters to the government, people with disabilities and those using wheelchairs still face difficulties when entering Junta House.
The building, located in the heart of Panaji, houses many government offices.

While the inside of the building is well equipped with ramps, sign boards and signages in Braille, the problem lies while entering the premises.
Mixed garbage, including carcasses of animals, is dumped right at the entrance for vehicles on the front side, making it not just inaccessible, but also unhygienic for those visiting the building.
TOI was witness to a wheelchair user’s inability to use this entrance/ exit due to the pile of garbage blocking it.
Ironically, the wall against which garbage has been dumped has a “No dumping of garbage here” sign painted on it. The situation, however, is far from being ‘swachh’ or accessible.
When asked about this, PWD executive engineer Vasant Nachinolkar said vendors have been instructed not to dump garbage at the building’s entrance. “We had cleared the pathway during at the time of elections. We have written to vendors not to dump garbage here and also requested CCP to lift the waste, but they haven’t done so. We will now have to resort to locking the gate,” he told TOI.
At the rear end of the building, meanwhile, despite it being reserved for parking for persons with disabilities, there is no direct access to the building for a wheelchair-bound person as small concrete barriers create hurdles.
At a drive conducted on October 2, 2019, the public works department (PWD) along with people with disabilities had cleared vegetation that had overrun a special pathway adjacent to the rear entrance.
Disability rights activists and wheelchair users have been writing to the PWD and the social welfare director/ commissioner for disabilities over the matter, but with little success..