New Delhi [India]: Retorting to the controversy which stirred after paracyclist Aditya Mehta was asked to remove his prosthetic limb as part of a security check at the Bengaluru airport, paralympic silver medalist Deepa Malik on Thursday said one needs to abide by rules and called for better technology to ensure that such incidents do not occur again.
“Our achievements at Paralympics do not suggest that we will not undergo security checks. When you travel by air then you have to undergo security check regardless of who you are. I would like to add that removing his artificial limb was bit too much,” said Malik.
“There is so much advancement in technology. We should come up with something which fulfils both criteria – no one gets hurt and the system is followed,” she added.
Aditya, a para-cyclist and a two-time silver medallist at the Asian Paralympics, earlier today said that he felt humiliated when he was stripped off and forced to remove his prosthetic limbs again during a security check by the CISF personnel at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
This comes two months after the Hyderabad-based cyclist was strip-searched at the Bengaluru Airport.
Aditya further said that the security personnel did not pay heed to his request for a body scanner instead of forcing him to strip off.
“If this is the way they speak and this is the way they treat a person with disability, especially a person who lost his limbs recently and if one has to go through all this procedure then he will lose hope towards life and its will be very tough to get back his confidence back because this is the first time I am wearing my amputation limb, it will forever mentally scar me forever,” he told ANI.
Aditya said that he was forced to put his amputated limbs back within 15 minutes after the security check where it usually takes 50 minutes to do so.
“After that I was forced to wear my amputation limbs faster, it usually takes me 50 minutes to do that but they forced me to wear within 15 minutes because of this my injury got aggravated and I am unable to walk for three days,” he said.
Aditya further said that he did not receive any assurances despite his complaints to the DG CISF, the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office.
He, however, said that he got a reply from the PMO, but no action has been initiated so far.
“I have written to the Civil Aviation office, PMO, DG BSF, CISF but no one replied except the PMO stating that they received the complaint and will forward it to the concerned ministry. I am still waiting for it. I have also filed RTI on the same to the Civil Aviation Ministry,” Aditya said.
The two-time silver medallist also pointed out that CISF personnel at the airport started to look him in a weird way after the incident. (ANI)