Three civil service aspirants lost their lives in a tragic incident on Saturday evening in Delhi. The aspirants were attending a coaching center in Old Rajendra Nagar when the basement flooded, leading to their deaths. Following the incident, enraged students staged an overnight protest outside the institute, demanding justice.
By Sunday morning, students were seen sitting on the road outside Rau’s IAS Study Circle, chanting slogans of ‘We want justice.’ One protesting IAS aspirant criticized the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for their negligence. “MCD says it is a disaster, but I would say that this is complete negligence. Knee-deep water gets logged in half an hour of rain. A ‘disaster’ is something that happens sometimes. My landlord told me that he had been asking the councillor for the last 10-12 days that drainage must be cleaned,” the student told ANI.
The protesting students demanded action against those responsible for the incident. “The first demand is that action should be taken against the culprits. The immediate demand is that the actual number of deaths and injuries should be put out,” another student added.
Responding to the incident, Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi directed the MCD Commissioner to take strict action against all coaching centers operating in basements across Delhi that are in violation of building bye-laws. She emphasized the need to identify any MCD officials responsible for the tragedy and take immediate action against them.
Around 7 pm on Saturday, the fire department received a call regarding waterlogging inside the coaching center. A rescue operation was launched, and while a few students managed to escape, 13-14 were rescued and taken to a hospital. Police registered a criminal case over the deaths of the three aspirants and detained two individuals. Two female students and a male aspirant tragically lost their lives in the incident.
