Three students died due to water logging in the basement of a coaching center located in Rajendra Nagar, Delhi. The basement of Rao IAS Coaching Center in Old Rajendra Nagar was suddenly filled with water on Saturday. In this case, two people are being detained and interrogated. Meanwhile, the Delhi government has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident.
After the accident, protests by students are continuing outside the coaching centre. Students are raising slogans against MCD and coaching centre. On the order of magistrate inquiry, a protesting student said, ‘There is no one to take responsibility here. We want someone from the government to come here and take responsibility for the students who lost their lives. By tweeting, writing a letter, sitting in your AC room, how are you improving the future of people? When people come to ask for votes, they come to their homes and when a tragedy occurs, they sit at home and write letters.
‘Flood occurs within 10-15 minutes’
Another student said, ‘The biggest problem is that 80 percent of the libraries are in the basement. If it rains even for 10 minutes, there is flood here. Till date MCD has not done any work on this. This is the responsibility of MCD.
The student said, ‘If Delhi is going to be flooded in 10 to 15 minutes, this is the most posh area, people are studying here by paying two and a half to three lakh rupees. It is the responsibility of MCD. This same MCD becomes very responsible if money has to be taken from any topiary. Today this happened in a library where it took 12 to 15 hours to rescue and no one was saved, 99 percent people were not saved.
‘It is not a disaster, it is the negligence of MCD’
Another protesting student said, ‘MCD has said it is a disaster but I believe it is complete negligence. I have been living here for two years. When it rains for half an hour, the place gets filled with knee-deep water. This has been happening continuously for two years. Disaster is something that happens occasionally but we have seen it happening for two years.
The student said, ‘Secondly, I have talked to my landlord. He told that he had been asking the councilor for the last 10-12 days to get the drains cleaned but he is not getting the drains cleaned. This is also a failure of our councilors. They first cut off the lights, then took out all the dead bodies and now the entire police has gathered to remove the children and is standing with sticks. Today more than 300 people from the administration were standing, more than 100 policemen were standing, NDRF teams were standing. I want to ask why these 300 people did not stand up 10 days ago when the monsoon was about to arrive.
‘The correct number of deaths should be told’
The student says, ‘Our demand is that action should be taken against all those who are guilty. We want that the number of deaths or those who are injured should be clearly told to us. I was standing here with the disaster people. I don’t know whether he told me the truth or lie but he said that about 8 to 10… deaths he told me about, now I don’t know whether he told me wrong or right.
How did the basement fill with water?
Delhi Fire Department had received information about water filling in the basement of the coaching center at 7 pm on Saturday evening. A call was made to the department that the basement of the coaching center was flooded and many students were trapped. Seeing the seriousness of the matter, the NDRF team started the rescue operation. The situation was such that the divers had to be lowered into the water.
There is a library in the basement of the coaching centre. Because of this a fair number of students were studying here. According to Fire Department Director Atul Garg, 30 to 35 students were present at the time of the incident, out of which three were trapped. After the rescue operation, bodies of three students were recovered. Among those killed are two girl students and one boy.