A restaurant in the Delhi-NCR recently came under fire after it reportedly refused entry to a woman with physical disability. The woman, named Shrishti Pandey, claimed that the restaurant denied her entry as it would "disturb other customers". She took to Twitter to describe the incident. According to her Twitter thread, she visited the popular restaurant Raasta, located in Gurugram's DLF Cyberhub, with her friend and family on Friday. There she was stopped at the entry and a staff at the front desk said, "Wheelchair andar nahi jaygi (the wheelchair will not go inside)".
Further describing the incident, she said, "We thought it was an accessibility issue, but it wasn't". In fact, the staff denied them entry and pointed towards her, saying, "andar customers disturb hojaynge" (The customers will get disturbed)" Then after a lot of arguement, they were allegedly made to sit outside, which was "unsafe" for Ms. Pandey as she can't sit out in cold for long "because my body gets spastic."
"I am heartbroken. Awfully sad. And I feel disgusted," she added.
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She also shared a video of the incident, where we could see an argument between the restaurant staff and a guest who accompanied Ms. Pandey.
The tweet went viral in no time with hundreds and thousands of people retweeting and condemning the incident.
The Gurugram Police responded to her tweet seeking her contact details for further action. Filmmaker and actor Pooja Bhatt too commented on the tweet saying that she was "terribly saddened" by the incident.
However, the restaurant management at Raasta was also prompt enough to respond to the incident. They apologized for the incident and said that they are taking necessary steps internally to heighten sensitivity and empathy for their staff.
"As a part of our efforts we have already reached out to the aggrieved patron to personally apologise to them," Goumtesh Singh, Founder Partner at Raasta, said in a post.
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