New Delhi:
The Paralympic cycling champion Aditya Mehta has been humiliated twice at Indian airports within four days. Only after a few days of being ill-treated at Bengaluru airport, the athlete was asked to remove his prosthetic leg and clothes for security heck at Delhi airport on Tuesday.
The request, Mehta said, was not civil at all. Taking to Facebook to report his ordeal, the Paralympic champion said, “This is ridiculous! Another bad day! But this time I didn't give them a chance to put me down. Despite all the campaigning since four days, I was again asked to remove my prosthetic leg during security check at the Delhi Airport. A rude Sub-Inspector didn't have the courtesy to talk politely. He was adamant that he is not going to let me go until I take off my prosthetic limb for security check."
He went on to add "However, Assistant Commandant Rajeev, who was present at the site was kind enough to tell that they were just following the guidelines given by Bureau of Civil Aviation. He also mentioned that BCAS doesn't have enough funds to have body scanner which could be a sensitised way of checking. How pathetic is that!"
Mehta had earlier faced a similar situation four dasya go when he was allowed to board a flight only after putting his belongings, including his prosthesis, through a scanner at Bengaluru. He had gone there to promote the Aditya Mehta Foundation that works with differently abled sportspersons.
At the time, Aditya wrote:
“There cannot be a worst treatment than this for an amputee. On one hand we are trying out best to make lives better for the amputees at Central Armed Forces and on other side there are these uncivil officers who try to put us down. It was really humiliating for me to receive such an immoral treatment. I was asked to take off my prosthetic limb and was almost stripped off. Do you call this security check? Is this the kind of treatment you give to differently challenged people? These officers are meant to protect our lives not show us reasons to end our lives.”
According to media reports, an official from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation have justified the security check as “the rules do not exempt the screening of prosthesis”.
