Team Herald
MAPUSA: They are both grandmothers. With a past full of memories. And they are here at the registrars’ office in Mapusa probably to sign some document which would give a better life to their loved ones.
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But there’s a catch. The lift doesn’t work for months and they can’t climb the stairs. If it was not for these kind hearted Samaritans who hold them or put them on chairs to lift them, they would not make it to this government office up on the third floor of the building.
People say that none from the Sub Registrar’s office has bothered to see the plight of the public and get the lift fixed.
While the issue has been taken up with the concerned authorities, with regards to the functioning of the lift, which is now cluttered with cobwebs, no corrective measures have been taken by the authorities to resolve the problem.
Many of them with knee and joint pain issues, trudge to the third floor at this age, to get their work done at the Civil Registrar-cum-Sub Registrar’s office with excruciating pain in their legs.
The Civil Registrar-cum-Sub Registrar’s office has a fancy capsule lift which is now out of order for over a month. The lift is now a mere show piece.
A senior citizen said she had severe knee issues and it is extremely difficult for her to trudge up the stairs to visit the Civil cum Sub Registrar’s office. She said she had to take help from another young woman, to help her climb to the third floor. “If they have a problem with the lift, they should replace it,” the elderly woman suggested.
A young woman who was accompanying her said, it is very difficult for senior citizens to climb these steps. “They have problem with the knees. This is such a big office. Provisions have to be made for a lift. They should immediately repair the lift. So many senior citizens come here. They should not face hardships,” the young woman said.
Bernice Colaco, a senior citizen who heads a real estate firm said, “Climbing three storeys becomes a problem for me since I’m a heart patient. There is a lift but they have shut it down. This is a regular problem. My lawyer and my son too have told them, that if anything happens to my mother, they will hold them responsible.”
