Last Saturday, on July 27, in a tragic incident three UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) aspirants died in Old Rajendra Nagar area of New Delhi, when the basement of one of the most well known IAS study circle was flooded due to heavy rain. Shreya Yadav from Uttar Pradesh, Nivin Dalwin from Kerala and Tanya Soni from Telangana, all three lost their lives due to the alleged negligence of the Delhi government and civic authorities. Divers had to be pressed in to retrieve the bodies of the students.
As usual the political slugfest has taken over the debate of who should be held guilty for the loss of innocent lives. Remember, most of them spend lakhs of rupees every year to prepare for the highest civil service exams at these IAS coaching centres in the national capital. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which is in power in the Delhi Assembly has accused the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) of negligence, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has pointed fingers at AAP, trying to settle their political scores even during a tragedy.
However, one fact is in the open now that neither the municipality cleaned the roadside drains nor the State government stopped the illegal commercial activity in the basement of IAS coaching centre. It has also been exposed that even the storm water drains which are meant to handle the rain water and ensure their outlet to the rivers hadn’t been cleaned in years. As a result, when it poured heavily on Saturday, the water initially inundated the roads and the area and then entered the basement quickly and lives were lost.
However, the most shocking part of the news is that a month before this incident, one student of the same IAS study circle had complained to Delhi government and stated that classrooms are being run illegally in the basement without an No Objection Certificate (NOC). The student had also accused the senior officers of MCD of being aware of the violations and dragging their feet to take action. In the aftermath of the incident, a few junior officers of the MCD have been made scapegoats and have been caught alongwith a SUV driver who is accused of driving his car in a negligent manner that led to the breach of the plastic retaining sheet used for blocking the water from entering the basement.
It is not just about this one unfortunate incident, but rather an exploitative system of coaching centres who make the aspirants study in shocking conditions. Not only classes and libraries have been set up in the basement of the buildings, illegal paying guest (PG) accommodations are being run in the basement. As per students, when it rains, the students’ rooms fill with sewage water and with no emergency exit or ventilation, and they feel suffocated.
Teachers who take conduct the classes acknowledge that there are around 500-1,000 students attending class at a time. And the PG accommodation comes at a cost of Rs 20,000-25,000 per month, per student. One of the prominent teachers, who is also popular on social media, during an interview to a news channel on Tuesday informed that a few years back a senior mentor who was teaching in the class died due to suffocation while teaching in a basement classroom.
A few days ago, 26-year-old Nilesh Rai was returning from his PG class and it began pouring, there was water on the road. Nilesh took the help of an iron gate to avoid the water. The boy died at the spot as a live wire was touching the iron gate.
After lives are lost, the system is in full swing and the MCD has woken up and taken action against 13 coaching centres which have now been sealed. Encroachments on the drains are being removed.
In May this year, Delhi High Court ordered to close coaching institutes which violate fire and safety norms. This was because in June 2023, in Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar, a coaching hub was on fire and 60 students were injured. Even after the court order came to MCD to close the coaching centres, no action was taken. The MCD neither cleaned the drains nor remove the encroachments.
If one travels to all the coaching hub cities in the country, the situation is similar. Education and coaching for competitive exams has turned into a commodity and students and their parents are like customers who are literally willing to pay through their nose. All this is a systemic failure with no accountability or morality from those who call the shots.