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Basement deaths: students write to Murmu for independent probe
Incident a failure of civic body, we should’ve done our duty better, says senior MCD official while interacting with students; Municipal Commissioner says residential areas need to be decongested; stir is being ‘hijacked’ by outsiders, claim protesters
Protesting Civil Services aspirants are seeking action against the guilty officials, an infrastructural overhaul of coaching centres and a cap on their fee structure.
| Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
Civil Services aspirants continued their protest near Rau’s IAS Study Circle in Old Rajinder Nagar, where three students died on Saturday after rainwater flooded the basement of the coaching institute.
A group of Civil Services aspirants also wrote to President Droupadi Murmu, seeking an independent inquiry into the tragic incident.
“We demand accountability from senior officials responsible for maintaining drainage and sewage systems,” stated the letter.
Several senior bureaucrats and political leaders visited the protest spot to meet the students who have been demanding ₹1 crore compensation for the kin of each victim, infrastructural overhaul of coaching centres and a cap on their fees as well as rent charged by paying guest facilities.
Delhi Finance Minister Atishi and area MLA Durgesh Pathak (AAP), along with Mayor Shelly Oberoi, met the protesters and assured them that all measures to ensure their safety will be undertaken.
Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) Additional Commissioner Tariq Thomas was among the first officials to interact with the students. He said the drowning of the three students in the basement was a “failure” of the civic body and that the civic body officials should have done their duty better.
“I accept that it is a failure of all of us, including me,” said Mr. Thomas, adding that an inquiry is taking place and that action will be taken against those found guilty.
The official said the city’s population has grown exponentially over the past few decades. “We have structural issues as you said, and they need to be addressed in a systematic way; that is my solution,” he said, addressing the students.
A 28-member student committee also met MCD Commissioner Ashwani Kumar and flagged the poor safety measures at several coaching centres across the city. Mr. Kumar stressed the urgency of decongesting residential areas, which he said are turning into ghettos, so that students do not face infrastructural bottlenecks in pursuing their dreams.
Meanwhile, several Civil Services aspirants in Old Rajinder Nagar accused student groups from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Delhi University (DU) of “hijacking” their fight for justice.
‘Apolitical protest’
They said that even as they wanted to keep the protest apolitical, “outsiders” were raising political slogans at the protest site.
Vaibhav Singh Chauhan, a Civil Services aspirant from Lucknow, said,“We have been protesting since the night of July 27. Leaders from various students’ unions in JNU and DU have joined us for publicity. This is taking away attention from our core demands.”
The police also removed a few “outsiders” from the protest site. However, one of the detainees, Hardik, told The Hindu that he was removed from the protest site despite being a Civil Services aspirant enrolled with a coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar.
Safety at schools
The Directorate of Education on Wednesday asked city schools to ensure that their basements, if any, are only used for permissible activities. “Delhi has recently experienced unfortunate incidents in which three Civil Services aspirants drowned in the basement of a coaching institute and one aspirant lost his life due to electrocution. It is imperative that all schools ensure safety and security of students, and have requisite infrastructure in place to avoid any untoward incident,” its circular read.
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