All Akshaya centres must function on ground floors, orders rights panel

Thrissur: The State Human Rights Commission has ordered that all Akshaya centres, the facilities set up as part of the Kerala government's project to help people access e-governance services, should function on the ground floor of buildings. 

Commission member V K Beenakumari issued the order on Tuesday to address the difficulties faced by elderly people, pregnant women and people with disabilities to reach these centres functioning upstairs of buildings. The commission also sought to implement special facilities to avail Akshaya services to people with physical disabilities.

The order came on a complaint filed by K G Raveendranath, a resident of Mupliyam village in Thrissur, citing that most of the Akshaya centres in the district have been functioning on the upstairs of buildings. He requested the commission to relocate them downstairs. The commission has instructed the state project director of the Akshaya project to implement the order.

The official informed the commission that steps to make all Akshaya centres quality service providers were on.

The commission, in its order, said the government should ensure that the Akshaya entrepreneurs provide services to bed-ridden patients, pregnant women and people with disabilities at their doorsteps. Notices about the availability of such services should be displayed at Akshaya centres and local body offices.

Permission for setting up new Akshaya centres should be given only after ensuring that the facilities have arranged chairs for customers, drinking water, toilets and a notice board. Steps should be taken to install such facilities immediately in centres that lack them, the order said.

Akshaya centres have been set up to improve public service delivery by making services accessible to the common people in their locality. The project has been implemented as part of the Kerala State Information Technology Mission.