Nowadays, due to the craze of making Portuguese passports and the rise in business of selling/buying properties, houses, flats, etc., the office is always seen crowded mostly in the morning session. The worst hit are the handicapped, disabled persons, some who are wheel chair ridden and some on stretchers have to be manually lifted to the office with the help of hired labourers to sign their documents, etc. This causes great inconvenience and more problems for the health of the senior citizens / handicapped / disabled people.
A decade back, a leading newspaper had highlighted this problem and the need to shift this office to the ground level more in the interest of the handicapped/ disabled people. Also, the High Court order to build safe passage facilities for the handicapped disabled persons to reach all government run offices has not been adhered by the office authority so far. Successive governments have only announced competitive schemes for senior citizens and disabled persons, observed handicapped disabled persons day.
Babluis Pereira, Pomburpa
