"The guards arrived after the fifth call. They told me that the children had been rescued. To my shock, I could still hear them crying for help," said the resident who had called the main gate for help.
In a dangerous incident at Fresco, a condominium in Sector 50, Gurgaon, three children, all about 10 to 12 years of age, got stuck in the Tower 4 lift on Wednesday night. The children had boarded the lift to go to their respective floors at 8.20 pm, when the lift came to a sudden halt. The children were stuck in the lift for almost 25 minutes. This is the second incident reported in the past 15 days. A few days ago, a woman resident was stuck in one of the elevators for almost 30 minutes.
But that's not the most disturbing part.
Distraught after discovering that the alarm button on the lift was not working, the children started shouting for help, and Ravi Batra, a resident who was passing by, heard their cries and called the gate for help.
"It was astonishing that even after four frantic calls, the guards took a lot of time to reach the spot," said Batra, a chief risk officer at an MNC. "The guards arrived after the fifth call. They told me that the children had been rescued. But to my shock, I could still hear them crying for help. This time I called the security in-charge, who called the lift operator [who happens to be the only person available to take care of all the 28 lifts in the society] and the children were rescued."
“The AMC, or the annual maintenance contract, of the lifts has expired, and OTIS, the agency responsible for maintenance, has not been maintaining them, as Unitech, the builder, owes it Rs 40 lakh," said Nilesh Tandon, RWA president.
"I went to the Sector 50 police station and registered a complaint about the carelessness, irresponsibility and lack of services. I also discussed the matter with the commissioner of police," Batra further added.
The SHO of the Sector 50 police station, Surinder Singh Phogat, said, "We had called a representative from Unitech, who told us that the lift maintenance was Otis's responsibility. They did admit that their service personnel reached the spot a little late, though. We will now call Otis and seek their explanation on this issue."
