Using lifts in Gurugram can be a risk to your life

Gurugram: Anup, a technician in his mid 20's got entangled in the faulty wires of the lift and died on June 9. Following the incident, an FIR under section 304 (death not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was filed against the management of the building. Ever since the incidents, there have been four times when the lift in different residential societies got stuck for more than 30 minutes.

In the latest incident, a mother with a three-year-old child got stuck in the lift for more than 45 minutes. They could only be taken out after the doors were broken by the residents of the Signature Global City. To cut costs, various developers are foregoing the mandatory maintenance procedures for the lifts that are now resulting in adverse situations. Even though it is mandatory that lifts must be surveyed after every alternate year by the proper authorities, most of the lifts have not been maintained for more than five years.

With residents now lodging a large number of complaints against the builders, the Gurugram police have begun serving notices to the erring builders before taking action against them. In 2019 itself, 15 complaints were reported regarding the malfunctioned lifts. "We are receiving a large number of complaints of the malfunctioned lifts. We have now begun to serve notices to the builders before we initiate action against them," said a senior police official from Gurugram police.

Not only this year but in 2018 a woman had to undergo surgery after her lift fell from the ninth floor of a condominium society in DLF Phase-4. Along with the woman, three more people who were with her had sustained grievous injuries. What is however proving to be a major concern is that not only in the residential societies but even the government buildings faulty lifts have proved to be dangerous. There have been two occasions in which the lifts in district mini secretariat have got stuck. In one of the situations, one of the people who was trapped was a 90-year-old woman.

"The main problem is that there is a big scam at play where the builders in collusion with the public agencies have now begun to play with our life. While the money that should be paid for maintenance is being looted by the builders, the public agencies, on the other hand, are not helping hundreds of residents by not conducting proper audits," said Parag Srivastava, a city resident.