King Edward Medical University: Disabled students can’t get to classes as lift not working

Lift not functional for five months, KEMU officials cannot say why.


Our Correspondent March 18, 2012

LAHORE: Disabled students at King Edward Medical University (KEMU) are having trouble getting to the Physiology Department and computer laboratory on the second floor of the Bahawalpur Block as the lift has not been working for the last five months.

The Physiology Department is on the second floor while the Pathology Department is on the first floor and students of MBBS I and MBBS II have to attend their classes on these two floors. The computer laboratory, where students can get cheap scans and photocopies, is also on the second floor.

“Every day, it is painful getting to my class on the second floor and then to the third floor. My classmates help and carry me in my wheel-chair up the stairs, but sometimes they are in a hurry and I can’t ask them to carry my chair and take me to certain places. We have complained to the administration about this several times but no action has been taken,” said a disabled MBBS student at KEMU.

Another disabled student said he had missed a couple of biochemistry classes because there wasn’t anybody available to carry him in his chair up the stairs. “The number of disabled students is around 3 per cent of the total student population of KEMU,” he said. “I don’t know why the administration doesn’t pay heed to our applications. Maybe they think that they need not worry about us.”

KEMU employees gave different explanations for why the lift wasn’t working. One said that some equipment had been stored in it the lift and that’s why it was shut down. Another said that it had broken down. An official in the administrative department said they would look into the matter. No one could explain why the lift had been kept shut or not repaired for five months.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19th, 2012.

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