Man gets stuck in lift in LDA apartment for 30 minutes

LUCKNOW: A man was trapped in a lift for 30 minutes before being rescued by locals at Lucknow Development Authority's Sargam Apartments in Jankipuram extension on Sunday.
It came within 15 days after a 34-year-old man got stuck in a lift for an hour and was the fourth such incident since January at the apartment.
At around 11.30am, the victim, Toofani Ram, who works in a private company hired by the Lucknow Municipal Corporation for solid waste management, was coming down from the 16th floor after collecting garbage disposal charges from a resident living in Block P, when on the 11th floor the lift went out of order.
The alarm was not working and the network on his phone was missing so he waited for 5 minutes hoping that the issue would get resolved on its own. But nothing happened. So, he got nervous and started shouting but no one paid heed.
Fortunately, at this time, the mobile caught the network.
"I immediately called the president of the resident welfare association for help. He sent residents to rescue me. It took another 25 minutes for them to take me out. Later, I took the stairs to reach the ground floor," said Toofani Ram.
Following the incident, locals alleged LDA to be negligent about the issue. Rishiranjan Shukla, resident at Sargam apartment, said, "As soon as we got information that someone got stuck in the lift, we took keys but were able to rescue him after 30 minutes. Now the lift has been restored for operation." But, he said people are using it as compulsion otherwise they are always afraid that it will malfunction again.
Despite several complaints to the LDA, which is still responsible for its maintenance in the absence of a proper RWA, no action has been taken. The LDA has given the maintenance responsibility to a private company which is not doing its job properly, Shukla added.
Another resident Prabhakar Mani said that the project started 13 years ago in 2009 under the Jankipuram Extension scheme and the construction work is yet to be completed. "Every time we lodge a complaint, LDA officials send a representative from the agency, but they never bother to visit. There are many other issues with elevator maintenance as well." he said.
Manoj Sagar, executive engineer (electricals), LDA, said, "We have given strict instructions to the private company looking after lift operations to identify faults in the lift to get them fixed permanently."