8 stuck in Parliament lift, rescued

Parliament House, it seems, is in urgent need of an overhaul.

Just days after a portion of the ceiling fell down in the chamber of Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, raising questions about the ageing structure’s strength, a lift in the high-security building got stuck mid-journey on Wednesday, trapping eight people for more than an hour.

It took the Delhi Fire Service personnel to manually open the lift number five in which seven Rajya Sabha reporters and the liftman had got stuck between the second and third floors for nearly an hour and a half.

The incident occurred a little after 2 pm, when those in the lift, including two women staff, were going to the third floor from the ground floor.

For those not aware of it, it was a cause for alarm when they saw the Delhi Fire Service personnel rushing in with their fire engines, while for those stuck in the lift, it was a traumatic time as they made number of phone calls from their mobile sets to their fellow colleagues even as they were sweating it out in the muggy Delhi weather. The help of the fire service was requisitioned after the Parliament Watch and Ward staff were unable to open the lift door.

In Rajya Sabha, BJP member S S Ahluwalia brought the matter to the notice of the chair, saying that such incidents could even lead to heart attacks. Later, Delhi Fire Service official Mukesh Verma said that the power supply to the lift was on throughout and the fans and the lights were working properly. Nobody required any medical attention after the rescue, he added. An investigation has been ordered into the incident, Parliament officials said.