Delhi Basement Tragedy "Failure" For All Of Us: Senior Civic Body Official

MCD Additional Commissioner Tariq Thomas on Wednesday accepted the civic body's failure in the Rajinder Nagar coaching centre deaths and said there are serious structural issues, which need to be addressed.

Interacting with the protesting students at UPSC coaching hub Rajinder Nagar here, the senior civic body official said there can be no excuses to the incident and the agency should have done its duty better.

"We have structural issues like you said and they need to be addressed in a systematic way, that is my solution," Thomas said addressing the concerns of students protesting outside Rau's IAS Study Circle.

"I am accepting it (Rajinder Nagar tragedy) is a failure for all of us and me personally. I am openly saying this shouldn't have happened," he said responding to a student's grievance.

Asked on what parameters should the administration's performance be evaluated in this incident, the civic body official said, "An inquiry is taking place, let it sink in. Those accountable in the vicinity will be acted upon. I am accepting we should have done our duty better and this should not have happened. There is no excuse..." 

"There are serious structural issues, which need to be addressed. The growth in Delhi (over time) has been so fast (that it is) beyond the master plan," he added. Thomas was interacting with the students at the backdrop of their protest, which entered the fourth day on Wednesday against the death of three civil services aspirants, two females and a male, due to rain induced flooding in the basement of Rau's IAS Study Circle which reportedly led to failure of biometric enabled single entry/exit point trapping the students. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)