Defunct lift at PF office: PCB, EPFO fail to take responsibility

The office is run on rent in a portion of the Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) building. And with a dispute going on between the PCB and PF office over the responsibility of maintaining the lift, nobody has come forward to repair it.

Sharing her difficulties in climbing the three-storey building of the PF office, 55-year-old Hemlata Patekar told Newsline that she has to literally crawl every time to visit the desired department. “Both my knees are weak because of arthritis and I cannot climb even few steps. There are many elderly visitors like me who face difficulties in climbing stairs,” she said. Another senior citizen, Mubeen Khan, said the lift has been non-functional for more than eight months. “Earlier we complained to the authorities about the breakdown of the lift, but it was of no use. Visiting the PF office is a necessary evil for us,” he said.

Responding to Newsline’s e-mail, which detailed out queries regarding poor maintenance of the lift at the PF office, PCB chief executive officer K Venka Nagi Reddy said the maintenance of the lift was beyond the scope of his office. “The PF office is solely responsible for the maintenance of the lift as it was handed over in the best working condition at the time of an agreement between that

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