New Delhi: A freshly laid road stretch, no ramps covering drains, and a new five-storey building housing two UPSC coaching institutes stand in Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar, one of the city’s coaching hubs for the civil services exam.
Two years ago, this building housed the Rau’s IAS Study Circle, where three UPSC aspirants drowned when rainwater flooded the institute’s basement library after a severe downpour caused massive waterlogging on the sloped streets.
Today, basement libraries in the area have been closed, and the road outside the old Rau’s building is new. But metres away, rented basement rooms continue to flood, electric cables still hang loosely and garbage chokes the pathways.
Two years after the 27 July 2024 drowning of the three UPSC aspirants, the CBI has cleared Kumar Abhishek, deputy commissioner of the MCD, under whose jurisdiction the area fell when the incident happened.
But students say that despite some changes, much remains the same.
Sakshi, a 28-year-old who has been attending the Anantam IAS coaching centre in the old Rau’s building for a couple of months, says that while basement libraries have been shut, the infrastructure in the area is the same.
Anantam IAS advertises itself as an “independent initiative by the Faculty of Rau’s IAS” and came up only when Rau’s shut down after the July 2024 incident. “Rental properties continue to rent out their basements, and these areas still flood whenever it rains.”
“This spot is a band-aid to cover up the larger issues that the area continues to face,” added Sakshi, who has been living in the area for three years.
“I have accessed basement libraries in the past, but now they are not operational anywhere. All classes in this building now happen on the first floor and the floors above it. Even the ground floor has no classrooms now,” she told ThePrint.
Ritesh Kumar Singh, who worked with Rau’s for 10 years, added that while the road in front of Rau’s had been cleared, the overall drainage system continued to be bad, and there had been no improvement in waste collection in the area as well.
Raktim, a 25-year-old aspirant, said that his first monsoon in Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar was in 2024. “The road had multiple potholes, and it used to be flooded. The scarier part was the electric cables that hung low,” he said.
In the past two years, he has witnessed a mass protest over the demand for better infrastructure after the three UPSC aspirants died, roads being dug up for repairs and the shutting of basement libraries across the area. “Earlier, the area in front of Rau’s would always flood. After the MCD made repairs in the past year, it has not flooded yet, but Delhi has not yet received high and continuous rainfall either,” said Raktim.
Coaching industry hit
Despite the infrastructural problems, some new coaching institutions have come up in the area. A stone’s throw away from the old Rau’s building is Raj IAS, which is advertised as an organisation run by “mentors” from Rau’s IAS circle.
Singh says he was surprised when Rau’s shut. “It was one of the biggest names, and those who used to teach there were highly paid. When it shut, many teachers like us were left jobless for a long time because no other organisation has that many vacancies and the ability to pay such high salaries,” he told The Print.
But the drowning at the Rau’s basement library and infrastructural problems have hit the coaching industry in the area.
“The coaching industry that grew in Old Rajinder Nagar has been seeing a steady downfall. Aspirants now prefer living in their homes and preparing online or residential programmes run by some institutes,” said Jeet Kumar, an ex-Rau’s IAS circle mentor.
Living at home is a cheaper option, but residential programmes, often located on the outskirts of the city, provide a quality environment and better infrastructure.
A senior MCD official told ThePrint that following the incident two years ago, all basement libraries were shut. “All encroachments over the rainwater drains were removed. It was not only causing difficulty in desilting but also hindering the flow of rainwater,” said the official.
The official added that with a large footfall in the area, especially students, the generation of waste is huge. However, the department has been trying to maintain the area’s infrastructure. Ritesh Kumar Singh acknowledged the MCD’s work since July 2024, but it wasn’t enough. “We have seen them dig up roads, fix drains, but the area needs an infrastructure overhaul, not just a stopgap fix,” he said.
Singh holds both Rau’s and the government bodies responsible for the incident two years ago. “Rau’s should not have run a library in the basement, and the government should not have waited for someone to die to fix roads and drainage in the area,” he said.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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