Hyderabad: Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav and 20 of his followers had a narrow escape on Monday morning when a lift in the St. Theresa Hospital in Sanathnagar that they had got into came crashing down.
Sources in the hospital said that security staff had warned the group that the lift was getting overcrowded. Mr Yadav and his supporters had gone to visit the district president’s father who was undergoing treatment in the hospital.
Sister Thomas of the hospital said, “The security guard warned them that so many people should not get into the lift but no one listened. There was also a stretcher and our nursing staff in the lift, but they were not willing to listen.”
Another nurse on condition of anonymity said, “The lift was bound to crash. All of them wanted to go with the minister. They were not willing to understand that it was peak hour and doctors and nurses were busy attending to in-patients.”
No warning of overcrowding given, says mantri
Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav categorically stated that no one warned them about overcrowding the lift. When asked whether it was right for 20 people to enter a lift, Mr Yadav said, “We went to see our district president’s father. Everyone wanted to be together. But that is not the point. There should have been someone to guide people at the entrance.”
Although no one was injured, a senior officer of the hospital said, “Neither the minister nor his supporters were ready to listen to us. Thank God no one was hurt. After coming down in the cellar, all of them were grinning. What if something would have gone wrong? The hospital would have been blamed and none of these people would have taken the responsibility that they had all huddled together in one lift.”
