After the incident, basement classes have got a different image! Know why Vikas Divyakirti said this

When big educationists are remembered in the case of UPSC, one name that is taken is that of Vikas Divyakirti. Candidates preparing for civil service see Vikas Divyakirti as their role model. Perhaps that is why Vikas Divyakirti’s silence in the Old Nagar coaching accident in Delhi had troubled everyone. During this silence of three days, students kept asking where is educationist Vikas Divyakirti and why is he not speaking for the benefit of students now. After three days, Vikas Divyakirti broke his silence and spoke on the Rajendra Nagar accident.

In an interview given to news agency ANI, Vikas Divyakirti told who he holds responsible for the coaching incident and what is his opinion on his own coaching being sealed. When Vikas Divyakirti was asked that the children are angry with him, what would he like to say on that, he said, ‘It can be said that we have made a mistake, but this is such a mistake in which our intentions were not bad, but yes, there has been a lapse at the rule level. The strange thing is that the number of coaching institutes in Delhi must be at least a thousand, it can be more also. The norms like fire NOC, education building, my guess is that not even one out of these thousands will have this NOC.

Why did Vikas Divyakirti remain silent for three days?

Vikas Divyakirti further said that when an accident happens, major things come to light like there is no fire NOC or whatever, then public anger can burst out. Patience is needed to think or understand the circumstances behind this. So actually for three days I was wishing that all the circumstances should come to light first, for 1-2 days it was not clear how many children were there. Slowly things became clear.

What did the academicians say when the basement was sealed?

As far as our basement is concerned, one is in Mukherjee Nagar, there are 4-5 buildings in Karol Bagh, out of which the basement of one building has been sealed. The basement in Karol Bagh is an approved basement. It is a commercial basement. It is written in its NOC that an office can be run in it and indeed an office was running in it. But now there was pressure on the MCD, so they have sealed everything without thinking.

There was a lot of noise about the basement in Nehru Vihar. Ever since the basement scene happened, an image of the basement has been created in everyone’s mind. The image is that there is a small basement and some children are sitting in it, there is only one door, what will happen if it closes, it is absolutely justified. The basement of Nehru Vihar was not the basement of any house, it is the basement of a commercial mall. It is a very large basement. There are not one or two but seven exits in it. All of them are connected to each other. There is a map in every classroom that shows where one can exit in an emergency. All the members of our staff are constantly trained.

What is the controversy regarding Drishti IAS Coaching?

I am saying this in my senses that our basement is one of the safest infrastructure in Delhi. The building was built recently and we are not its owners, we are there on rent. When we asked the owner, he told us many things, which are heard in the High Court. There is a lot of confusion between DDA and MCD in this, many letters have been written by MCD and many letters by DDA. The decision on this was to come on 28 August but now there is a hearing again. In the last one year, we went to the classrooms and told all the students that it is possible that we may not get permission for this, then we will shift. We made them fill an online form that where would they like to go in that case. Karol Bagh or somewhere else. The case is still going on in the High Court, as soon as any conclusion comes, we will talk about it.

We used to think that there was more concern about fire. It also happened that such an incident has happened in Surat, Gujarat. With the heat in Delhi this year, we used to pray that no accident happens in any coaching institute in this kind of heat. ACs were running day and night, it is very difficult to bear that much load. Most institutes in Delhi have only one entry and one exit. The biggest concern was that electricity meters are installed on the same path. Last year, a coaching institute in Delhi caught fire, it had only one path. There was a meter in it. In such a situation, the children had to go up but the smoke rose upwards. The children ran up and by then some children had also jumped. The main danger is from fire and when it is hot in Delhi, there is a problem especially for a month. This year, for the first time, we did this that we gave a month’s vacation to the children in summer. Online classes were conducted. There should not be any accident. The thought of filling water never came to our mind.