Last Updated on 28/07/2024 by Ankita Jain
Three students died due to water logging in the basement of a coaching centre located in Rajendra Nagar, Delhi. The basement of Rao IAS Coaching Centre in Old Rajendra Nagar suddenly got flooded on Saturday. Two people have been detained and are being questioned in this case. Meanwhile, the Delhi government has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident.
After the incident, students are protesting outside the coaching centre. Students are raising slogans against the MCD and the coaching centre. On the order of magistrate’s investigation, a protesting student said, ‘No one is taking responsibility here. We want someone from the government to come here and take responsibility for the students who lost their lives. By tweeting, by writing a letter, by sitting in your AC room, are you improving the future of the people? When they come to ask for votes, they come to our homes and when a tragedy happens, they write letters sitting at home.’
‘Floods arrive in just 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, it gets flooded. Till date, the MCD has not done any work on this. This is the responsibility of the MCD.’
The student said, ‘If Delhi is flooded in 10 to 15 minutes, this is the most posh area, people are studying here by paying 2.5 to 3 lakh rupees. The responsibility for this lies with the MCD. If the same MCD has to collect money from a hawker, then it becomes very responsible. Today, this has happened in a library where it took 12 to 15 hours to rescue and no one has survived, 99 percent of the people have not survived.’
‘This is not a disaster but MCD’s negligence’
Another protesting student said, ‘MCD has said that this is a disaster but I believe that this is complete negligence. I have been living here for two years. If it rains for half an hour, the water level here rises upto the knees. This has been happening continuously for two years. A disaster is something that happens once in a while but we are seeing that this has been happening for two years.’
The student said, ‘Secondly, I have spoken to my landlord. He told me that he had been telling the councillor for the last 10-12 days that the drains should be cleaned but he is not getting the drains cleaned. This is also the failure of our councillors. First they cut the electricity, then removed all the dead bodies and now the entire police force 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, the NDRF team was standing. I want to ask why these 300 people did not stand 10 days ago when the monsoon was about to arrive.’
‘The exact number of deaths should be disclosed’
The student says, ‘Our demand is that action should be taken against all those who are guilty. We want that the death count or the number of injured people should be told to us clearly. I was standing here with the disaster people. I don’t know whether they told me the truth or a lie but they said that there were about 8 to 10… They told me about the deaths, now I don’t know whether they told me the truth or the truth.’
How did the basement get filled with water?
Delhi Fire Department received information about water filling in the basement of the coaching centre at 7 pm on Saturday evening. The department was called that the basement of the coaching centre 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 divers had to be sent into the water.
There is a library in the basement of the coaching centre. Because of this, a good 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, the bodies of three students were recovered. Among the dead are two girl students and one boy student.