The general sense behind monsoon rain in India is usually one of relief from summer heat but they sometimes come in as bearsers of destruction. The revered city of Delhi saw a sample of this on 27 July when a coaching center turned out to be like a grave in water- like a watery grave. Three young people intending to become civil servants, Tania Soni, Shreya Yadav and Navin Delvin, lost their lives there in the tragedy.The details of Delhi Coaching Centre Incident are as follows ;
A Basement of Death
In Old Rajinder Nagar, the epicenter of the tragedy was Rau’s IAS Study Circle. A premier coaching institute that grooms aspirants for Indian Administrative Service, ironically it had also become a disaster zone. When heavy rains lashed Delhi on October 12th 2020, the basement of the coaching center turned illegally into a library experienced unprecedented flooding. The place that once served as an aspirants’ haven now became their watery grave
Eyewitness accounts paint a chilling picture of panic and desperation as the rising water turned the basement into a death trap. Students clambered over each other, their cries muffled by the roar of the incoming flood. The escape routes were few, and the situation deteriorated rapidly. While many managed to flee the rising waters, three young lives were irrevocably lost.
A Breach of Safety
The incident has exposed a systemic failure in the city’s infrastructure and a blatant disregard for safety regulations. The coaching center had obtained a building plan from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in 2021, but it had deceptively classified the basement as a storeroom. This blatant violation of norms, coupled with the absence of adequate emergency exits, created a deadly environment.
The video footage of the incident is a damning indictment of the prevailing conditions. It shows a deluge of water rushing towards the coaching center, the force of which appears to have collapsed the gate. The footage also reveals the perilous conditions in the surrounding area, with residents wading through knee-deep water. This visual evidence underscores the city’s vulnerability to heavy rainfall and the urgent need for infrastructure improvements.
Accountability and Reform
The aftermath of the tragedy has sparked widespread outrage and demands for accountability. The Delhi Fire Services chief, Atul Garg, confirmed that the coaching center had violated the terms of its fire NOC by using the basement as a classroom. This revelation has raised questions about the role of the MCD in approving the building plan without a thorough inspection.
Three young lives lost have created ripples across the nation. They were students full of dreams and aspirations in a city that was meant to support their ambitions anyway. So much for those deaths; they only brought gloom in the coaching sector hence calling for a much-awaited review of safety policies and supervision.
The Delhi government has responded to the tragedy by ordering a crackdown on coaching institutes that violate building regulations. Mayor Shelly Oberoi has initiated an investigation to determine if any MCD officials are culpable for the incident. However, these measures are merely the first steps in a long road to recovery and reform.
Rau’s IAS study circle and the tragedy it bears will constantly remind us that there are lives lost in negligence and we must make complete changes in our cities’ infrastructure. The city is mourning over the loss now but it is imperative that we learn lessons from this tragedy in order to stop similar agonizing occurrences.