After a long wait, when a lift at the Community Centre at the Green Park Extension here was installed in August, elders in the locality hoped to use the recreation facilities available at the first floor without the hassle of climbing the stairs.

The much-needed lift was inaugurated by the Area Lok Sabha MP and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi with much fanfare at an event attended by senior officials from the municipal bodies.

However, three months on and the lift has remained non-functional due to reasons best known  to the authorities. This has left the senior citizens aghast as they are being forced to use the stairs. Some of them are 80 to 90 years old who are unable to climb the stairs. Says JR Gupta, Chairperson of the Confederation of Senior Citizens Association of Delhi, “we have approached concerned authorities such as Commissioner South Delhi Municipal Commissioner, our MP Lekhi and Electrical Department of the Delhi Government. But to no avail.”

The safety certificate to the lift was issued by the Labour Department of the Delhi Government on September 1, 2023. “But we do not know where this lift has got stuck”, he said.

About 100 senior citizens aged between 79 to 90 years are daily visiting the recreation centre of the Senior Citizens Council of Delhi at the first floor of the community centre to avail free facilities such as homeopathic dispensary, physiotherapy, blood sugar test, computer training, yoga classes, library, newspapers, and television and carrom board among others. At times, discourses on various topics such as on spirituality and health are also organized at the centre, said the complaint by the Association to Gyanesh Bharti, Commissioner, SDMC.

What’s the use of such facilities when older adults who often suffer from various chronic diseases are unable to access the care resources, lamented Gupta.