Senior citizens, differently-abled at receiving end

Hyderabad: Senior and differently-abled citizens at the ‘Fish Prasadam’ event were put in tremendous strain on Friday following the mismanagement of the organisers and the police officials as there was no separate queue arranged for them.

Most of the elderly and physically challenged persons reached the prasadam venue a day early hoping to finish the task early, but their efforts turned futile. The organisers at first promised them to provide fish prasadam in a separate queue but later, around 12 in the noon, an announcement was made asking them to join the general line resulting in severe inconveniences to them.

The senior and disabled persons who were standing in separate rows for hours in a hope to get early remedy were forced to fight shoulder to shoulder with general public for the asthma treatment. The late announcement came with organisers realising that there was no special counter allotted for them and they were forced to follow long serpentine queues.

While many fainted on the way, all the emergency vehicles were put to use. And the crowd started breaking out though the barricades, pleading for help for their disabled ones. Police department on the other hand was trying to control the situation of chaos. But the crowds were in despair.

“We were said to wait in separate queue since Thursday night. The police kept us fooling with the idea of special arrangements for senior citizens. And now they ask us to join the same queue. We have our train at 4 pm today if this remains the situation we will miss our train.” said Harish who came from Agra with is elderly mother.

“It is because of the insufficiency in distribution counters but we are trying to be flexible to help the needy.” said Additional Deputy Commissioner G Jogaiah. After a few hours the situation was in control when the police and volunteers started heavy barricading and allowed the sick to take shortcuts.