Delhi coaching centre flooding: 3 UPSC aspirants dead, institute's owner and coordinator arrested

Three students in India's national capital New Delhi studying for the prestigious Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination died on Saturday (Jul27) after the basement of their coaching institute was flooded with water. TheRau's IAS Study Circleis located in Rajendra Nagar.

The basement of the centre was flooded following hours of heavy rain. The three students- two females and a male-were trapped for over four hours. Their bodies were retrieved from the site after a rescue operation by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), local police and fire department, officials told the news agency PTI.

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Students held a protest over these deaths, raising slogans against authorities.

The Delhi Police said on Sunday (Jul 28) that the owner and coordinator ofRau's IAS Study Circle were arrested.

Here's a look at what has happened so far:

> The fire department in Delhi received a call about waterlogging in the basement ofRau's IAS Study Circleat around 7 pm on Saturday.A fire department official said that a total of five tenders were rushed to the site. The basement was full of water when they arrived.

> Addressing a press conference,DCP (Central Delhi) M Harshavardhan said that an investigation was launched into how the basement got flooded. "It appeared that the basement got flooded very fast due to which some people were trapped inside," Harshavardhan said.

> The victims were identified asTania Soni, and Shreya Yadav, both aged 25, and Navin Delvin, 28.

> Since Saturday night, students (of the civil services coaching institute) have been protesting against the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the management ofRau's IAS Study Circle.

> Speaking to the news agency ANI, one of the students said, "Both MCD and the coaching institute are at fault, they should be held jointly liable." Another student told ANI that approximately 20-25 students were trapped inside the institute, adding, that the Delhi government had not spoken to any of the students.

> Delhi Mayor Dr Shelly Oberoi instructed the MCD commissionerthat all such coaching centres across Delhi which are under the jurisdiction of MCD and running commercial activities in basements which are in violation of building bye-laws and are not as per norms, strict action should be taken against them immediately.

>She said that an immediate enquiry was to be conducted to identify if any officers of MCD were responsible for this tragedy. If any official is found guilty, the strongest possible action be taken against them.

> This tragedy in the national capitalhas caused a war of words between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

> Hitting out at the AAP, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said, "What has happened there is not a tragedy but murder. How the library was functioning in the basement? What happened to an investigation that was set up earlier?"

> "These students are the future of the country... Delhi Minsiter doesn't have the courage to go there (at the incident site). You people (Delhi govt) are involved in this corruption. The people were continuously asking for the drainage to be cleaned, what were you doing? The AAP govt has destroyed the entire Delhi. What are their (students) faults, that they came to Delhi to study?" Sachdeva added.

> Hitting back at the BJP, AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak said, "Delhi's drainage system has collapsed and the reason for this is that BJP was in power for 15 years. We have been here for the last 1 year and are working on the drains, but I do not want to get into any blame game, I want it to be investigated and strict action should be taken against whoever is responsible."

> The Delhi Congress, meanwhile, said that the Delhi government wasproving to be a complete failure.

> "Who permitted to run the institute in the basement? We should pay attention to this. Kejriwal ji continuously writes letters to maintain his position, but now we should also see the condition of Delhi today...His ministers are not able to do anything today," Delhi Congress President Devendar Yadav told ANI.

(With inputs from agencies)