In a significant step to control the rising accidents due to lifts and escalators in urban areas of Uttar Pradesh, the Lift and Escalator Bill, 2024 was passed by voice vote after discussion in the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council on Saturday.
The bill includes provisions such as registration, maintenance, immediate notification to the relevant authorities during lift crashes and compensation and insurance for the affected individuals during accidents. Once it becomes a law, all private and public buildings having lifts and escalators will come under the purview of this legislation.
Speaking on the Lift and Escalator Bill, state Energy Minister Arvind Kumar Sharma said that MLAs Dhirendra Singh and Pankaj Singh had demanded that a law be made for lifts and escalators following an incident in Noida.
Sharma said that a provision has been made in the bill that registration will be mandatory for installing lifts and escalators in public.
Once the bill becomes law, lifts and escalators cannot be installed without obtaining the approval of the Energy Department. It will be mandatory for the agencies that manufacture and install lifts and escalators and the agencies that maintain them to register with the Directorate of Electrical Safety.
It will have to be renewed every five years. It will also have to be tested every year and a fee of Rs 1,500 needs to be deposited for the same. A fine will be imposed on the owner or the institution concerned if they fail to get the repairs done and ignore the standards.
However, lifts and escalators installed within industrial areas or premises governed by the Factories Act of 1948 are exempted from the Lift and Escalator Bill, with its application being mandatory for all private and public buildings and premises elsewhere in the state.
Sharma said several states, including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, and Delhi already have their own legislations governing lifts and escalators, but there was no such law in Uttar Pradesh.
OPPOSITION FLAGS BILL’S ‘SHORTCOMINGS’
However, Samajwadi Party members RK Verma, Amitabh Vajpayee and Kamal Akhtar talked out the “shortcomings” of the Lift and Escalator Bill and demanded that it be handed over to a select committee.
Vajpayee said that it has not been made clear as to who will give the insurance, who will give the compensation and the data of accidents due to lifts so far has not been given. He alleged that the bill was prepared in haste.
On the other hand, Sharma, the energy minister, clarified that all provisions will be made in the rules.
(with inputs from PTI)
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