The death of three students by drowning in the flooded basement of Rau's IAS Study Circle in the national capital was raised in both houses of Parliament on Monday, with heated debates being witnessed and demands made for accountability to be fixed.
Congress MP K.C. Venugopal, raising the issue in the Lok Sabha, said coaching centres had become a mafia and were taking advantage of students while being uncaring about their well-being or safety.
“In the other House (Rajya Sabha), there was an answer given by the Minister in 2023. In five years, between 2018-22, 80 students committed suicide only in higher education, like IITs and IIMs. The day before yesterday, in a coaching centre in Delhi, three students lost their lives. This coaching centre had no approved building at all. Some of the coaching centres have become mafia. When is the government going to take any action against them?,” Venugopal said.
Congress's Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor said serious lapses on the part of the authorities and flouting of norms by the coaching centre led to the tragedy. “There are a number of serious issues that need to be addressed....there were violations of basic norms when it comes to building codes, fire safety, flood safety etc. This is rampant in the city. The corporation also has responsibility,” Tharoor said.
BJP's MP from New Delhi constituency Bansuri Swaraj attacked the AAP government in Delhi as also the AAP administered municipal corporation for failing to take necessary action that would have prevented the mishap from happening.
“These students came to Delhi to prepare for IAS examinations, but they lost their lives due to the criminal negligence of the Delhi government,” Swaraj said.
She said the AAP government as also the MCD which is ruled by the party failed to take action on the complaints made before them regarding flouting of norms by the coaching centre as also the problems with regard to the drainage system in the area. She said the residents of Old Rajinder Nagar, where the coaching centre is located, had made numerous complaints to the authorities, including the local MLA and councillor, but in vain. She urged for an inquiry to be instituted under the union home ministry.
Congress MPs, including party whip Manickam Tagore and MP from Punjab Dr Amar Singh, had moved adjournment motions in the Lok Sabha to discuss the need to fix accountability for the death of the IAS aspirants in the flooding incident.
If the BJP MPs trained their guns on the AAP government in Delhi, the Congress members attacked both the BJP-ruled Centre and the AAP regime in Delhi for their failure to regulate the coaching centres and for the lapses in urban planning in the national capital.
In the Rajya Sabha, too, the tragedy reverberated, with house chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar calling out the coaching centres for turning coaching into a commercial activity. “I find that the youth demographic dividend of the country has to be nurtured. I further find that coaching has become virtually commerce. Every time we read a newspaper, the front one or two pages are of their advertisements,” he said.