Phone needs a repair? Help may not be as easy as you thought

Abhishek Awasthi | TNN | Apr 24, 2020, 07:25 IST

Noida: As the lockdown continues, people’s struggle to buy or repair essential gadgets have also intensified. With all shops and service centres closed, Noida police are getting calls from people, seeking help in getting their cable TV, fridge and mobile phones repaired.
The district administration has only allowed RO repair men to work. However, some housing societies have kept an electrician inside to cater to emergencies.
Sunil Sharma, a resident of Gulshan Homes 121, is one such victim of the current situation. The washing machine in his house broke down a week before and despite several attempts, he could not get it repaired.
“I have been washing clothes for my family since my wife is suffering from allergy in her hands. It’s high time the administration made some arrangements for the technicians so that they can start work,” he said.
In Sharma’s society, around 60 cable TV connections are not working since the past three days after the hailstorm damaged the dish antennas. Sarvesh Sharma, a resident, said TV is only source of entertainment during lockdown “and literally no family can survive without one”.
It's not only home appliances that are causing distress. With most people working from home, the complaints of broken smartphones, laptops, printers and refrigerators are also rampant. Manish Agarwal, a resident of the Homes 121, said that repairs of these gadgets are an absolute necessity when you are locked inside the house.
Punit Sinha, a resident of Sector 119 who works with a media house in Noida, said that he is forced to use a phone that does not even support internet as his smartphone broke down.
“I have asked my neighbour to put a WhatsApp query in my society residents’ group for any contact that can help me,” he said.
While the administration has only allowed RO repair men to work, the housing societies are demanding for curfew passes to be issued to technicians and service centre executives so that they can help people under these circumstances.
Rajive Singh, president of the Noida Federation of Apartment Owners Association, said they had even raised the point with the local MLA in a video conference a few days ago. “Valuable suggestions have been made by us to the district administration, in which we have requested for passes for technicians,” he said.
The cops are diverting these complaints to the general Covid-19 helpline.
“We have been getting some complaints and we are working on resolving this issue. Some of the societies already have electricians. Meanwhile, in the other areas, we are checking if we can allow limited number of people for the convenience of residents,” said Suhas LY, district magistrate.