New Delhi: The basement of the UPSC coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar, where three aspirants drowned Saturday evening, was flooded “within 10 minutes” of flood water entering that part of the building, an aspirant who was able to escape told ThePrint Sunday.
Preliminary information suggests that the aspirants were in the library, located in the basement of the four-storey building that houses the Rau’s IAS Study Circle in Old Rajinder Nagar, when flooding began.
“Within 10 minutes, the basement was flooded. It was 6:40 PM, we called the police and NDRF, but they arrived after 9 PM, by then three of my colleagues were dead,” the survivor told ThePrint.
ThePrint reached Rau’s IAS Study Circle for comment via email but is yet to receive a response. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
The deceased have been identified as Tania Soni (25) from Telangana, Shreya Yadav (25) from Uttar Pradesh and Navin Delvin (28) from Kerala.
On Sunday, Delhi Police detained the owner and the coordinator of the coaching centre.
An FIR was also lodged under sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 106 (1) (death by negligence), 115 (2) (causing hurt voluntarily), 290 (negligent conduct with respect to pulling down, repairing or constructing buildings, etc.) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
“These are not random people, these are people who will build the nation one day and their lives don’t matter?,” said Sumit Yadav, a UPSC aspirant who was part of a protest in Karol Bagh Sunday.
“We will only move when the MCD Commissioner comes to meet us,” said another aspirant who was part of the protest.
Lumbini, a 26-year-old UPSC aspirant, suggested that “90 percent of libraries (of UPSC coaching centres in Old Rajinder Nagar) are in the basement”.
“No one is following rules. Last year a fire incident happened in a library in Old Rajinder Nagar. This is when police inspected a few libraries and asked them to follow the rules. But it was settled with money,” she added.
Aspirants ThePrint spoke to also suggested that the door of the library at Rau’s IAS Study Circle in Old Rajinder Nagar was biometrics-operated, and that someone from the management might have cut off power to the building when flooding began.
“Poor drainage system and carelessness killed those students. From coaching centres to brokers and homeowners, everyone only exploits us. There should be strict action against coaching centres and the government should see the condition of students studying here,” said Lumbini.
She added, “No one follows the guidelines. As per rules, there should be at least two doors to the library but in the Rau’s building there was only one.”
Sources at the Rau’s IAS Study Circle in Old Rajinder Nagar, however, maintained that the management is doing its best to address the situation.
“This incident is very very sad. I believe that management is taking it very seriously and doing its best to address this situation. As far as I know I don’t think there was a biometric entry (door) to the library and we should not believe any rumours in such a situation but wait for the official statement to come out,” said a source from Rau’s IAS Study Circle.
On Sunday, hundreds of UPSC aspirants gathered in front of the coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar to protest the deaths of the fellow aspirants.
Last Monday, a UPSC aspirant was reportedly electrocuted to death in Delhi’s Patel Nagar area. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had taken suo motu cognizance of the incident and sought a report from the Delhi government in this regard.
In June last year, dozens of aspirants escaped death after a fire incident at a coaching centre in Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar.
The incident led to prompt action by the Ministry of Education which issued guidelines for coaching centres, mandating adequate infrastructure, compliance with fire safety standards, and the presence of trained counsellors to look after aspirants’ mental health.
This is an updated version of the report
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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Tragic beyond words. 2. Delhi has a full fledged democratically elected state government. Responsible and empowered constitutionally for everything except land and police / law and order. Why does the LG loom larger than life over every facet of governance. Except when things go terribly wrong, tough questions demand answers.