BETTER FRIENDLY FACILITIES IN PJ TO COME!

PETPOSITIVE NEWSFLASH!

BETTER COORDINATED PROJECTS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN PJ SOON


DATELINE PETALING JAYA:

Residents in Petaling Jaya, one of the most popular centre hubs of the Klang Valley, can look forward to more places becoming disabled-friendly in their city from now on. 

This is thanks to a special meeting that was held at the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) earlier this morning.

Four directors heading several of the most important departments of the city pledged to work hard to integrate their projects in order to make PJ a more handicapped-friendly area in the near future.

The department heads who attended the extraordinary meeting were Tuan Ir Haji Cheremi bin Tarman, (Engineering), Puan Hamidah binti Ariffin (Building), Puan Zuraidah binti Sainan (Landscape) and Puan Hjh Sharipah Marhaini binti Syed Ali.

Cheremi who chaired the meeting expressed his full support and commitment from his department to make PJ more user-friendly to the disabled and elderly community.

Sharipah who spearheaded the collaboration of the directors stressed on the various departments to execute their actions in a coordinated way so as to avoid extra and unnecessary spending.


Zuraidah pushed across the green aspect of designs and pointed out that every effort should be made to make pavements go around trees on a pathway before making the last resort to cut any down. 


Hamidah encouraged everyone to accept the challenge and mission of a disabled-friendly city and to get into the act immediately. 


A working committee was immediately established to meet once a month or more often if necessary to ensure that everything discussed and decided at today's meeting goes on track.

Petpositive's President Anthony SB Thanasayan who also serves as MBPJ Councillor gave his views as a user with a disability. He also offered to make site visits to personally check out the disabled-friendly details of each project. 

The discussion, which was held at the MBPJ Menara Tower lasted about an hour-and-a half.

Some of the upcoming events that disabled and elderly residents can expect to see this year include the launch of a universally designed pavement to be used as a model construction for the entire city to a national workshop on disabilities for all local councils.

Stay focused for more such good news soon!  
   
PET-BLOGSPOT
 
 
PET+BLOGSPOT is the official online blog of the Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association (Petpositive).

Our blog which was first established in October 2007 currently has more than 35,000 hits. PET+BLOGSPOT is updated frequently.

Kindly take note that views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Petpositive.

You may also visit our Webpage by browsing: www.petpositive.com.my

JALAN GASING PROJECT TO TEST VIABILITY - starmetro

Saturday June 27, 2009

Jalan Gasing project to test viability of barrier-free access

By TAN KARR WEI

THE controversial pedestrian pavement along Jalan Gasing is a pilot project for barrier-free access in Petaling Jaya.

Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) councillor Anthony Thanasayan said during a press conference at the MBPJ headquarters that the upgrading of the pavement was done so that it could be used as a test case and would be integrated in all future pavements.

MBPJ town planning department director Sharipah Marhaini Syed Ali said that Malaysia was still lacking when it comes to creating barrier-free environments, even when compared to cities like Bangkok and Manila.

“The project in Jalan Gasing is to come up with a typical model for our engineering department and for developers to be used for future developments,” said Sharipah.

Several residents association chairmen in the city had recently questioned the council for spending ratepayers’ money to upgrade the pavement that had been changed barely seven months ago.

“I am saddened and shocked that they made such remarks. It questions whether these chairmen should be leaders or not. They must have a broader view. Their comments are prejudiced and reveals an intolerance for people with different needs.

“The time has ended when the disabled’s needs are not being taken into consideration. I’ve seen elderly people walking on the roads instead of the pavements so this was done to immediately address the problem,” said Thanasayan.

A MBPJ engineering department representative said that the pavement along the 500m stretch of road was upgraded at a cost of RM180,000, including railings installation and covering up of the drains.

Thanasayan also said that the approach of conducting studies to find out the number of disabled people in an area was outdated and added that it was a misconception that the disabled were only centred in one place.

Back in 2000, the then Petaling Jaya Municipal Council (MPPJ) had chosen Section 52 (PJ New Town) as a pilot project to build more disabled-friendly facilities.

“Of course making the city accessible would incur costs. Many infrastructure built before 2000 did not take into account the needs of the disabled,” said Sharipah.

She said that all present applications for development must go through the OKU (disabled) facilities committee chaired by Thanasayan before being approved at the One-Stop-Centre.

Thanasayan said that the council would integrate the barrier-free concept into the state-initiated Clean Zone programme, where Section 52 has been identified as the zone to be spruced up.

MBPJ environmental health assistant director Dr Abdul Ghalib Sulaiman said that 500 additional litter bins would be placed around the city, with the main focus on Section 52.

“To turn Section 52 into a clean zone, we will work together with restaurant owners. Enforcement will be stepped up in the area to make sure that operators adhere to the guidelines,” said Dr Ghalib.

PET+BLOGSPOT is the official online blog of the Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association (Petpositive).

Our blog which was first established in October 2007 currently has more than 25,000 hits. Please note that views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Petpositive.

You may also visit our Webpage by browsing: www.petpositive.com.my