By IANS BENGALURU: Marking the International Wheelchair Day on Sunday, around 70 wheelchair-bound specially-abled people sought public spaces to use in this tech city. "There is need create awareness on wheelchair users' issues, such as access to public spaces to ride in the city," said Padmashri Malathi Holla, a wheelchair-bound evangelist for equal rights of specially-abled people. Arjuna awardee Malathi Holla, who represented India in Paralympics, Asian Games, World Masters and Commonwealth Games, is the founder of Mathru Foundation, a charitable trust for people with disability. Around 300 people, including volunteers and activists, participated in the rally, organised by the Special Educators and Rehab Professionals (SERPA), a non-profit organisation, from M.G. Road to Cubbon Park Metro station to mark the day and highlight their issues. "Creating awareness and accepting the specially-abled people into our midst is the first step to pave for access to public spaces," said Uma Hrishi, organiser of the rally. As wheelchair users with locomotor disabilities face difficulty in moving, be in offices or schools, on roads or footpaths in cities across the country, Uma said it was high time accessibility was made a part of their daily routine. Urging the government to provide access to public places, including buses and restrooms, Karnataka Vikala Chethana Samstha member Kiran Nayak from Chikkaballapur town lamented that wheelchair users were not even treated as normal human beings. "In a cosmopolitan city like Bengaluru, they (wheelchair users) can't get onto footpaths, public places or even into buses. The state government should create access to public places by implementing the Public Works Department Act," said NGO Swaraj Abhiyan's president Manhohar Elavarthi. Kannada cine actor Premkavi Ramesh, who is starring in a soon-to-be released movie "Wheelchair Romeo", said the government should provide wheelchairs of quality to the specially-abled people than giving chairs used for patients in hospitals. "They need wheelchairs for daily use and not when they are sick," Ramesh quipped.

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