Action Against 2 Engineers After Delhi Study Centre Flooding Kills Students

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Monday suspended an official and terminated another, two days after three civil service aspirants died in the flooding of the basement of a coaching institute in Old Rajinder Nagar.

MCD Commissioner Ashwani Kumar terminated the local Junior Engineer and suspended the Assistant Engineer, the first major action against government officials since the tragic incident at the Rau's IAS Study Circle on Saturday evening.

The officials worked with the maintenance department for the Karol Bagh Zone.

Tanya Soni, Shreya Yadav and Nevin Delvin were killed after heavy rain led to the flooding of the basement, which was being used as a library in violation of rules.

It is learnt that a month before waterlogging in the basement of the building, a complaint had flagged risks in using the basement as a library or for holding classes.

Kishor Singh Kushwah, another civil service aspirant, said he had written to the Centre, the state government and the MCD about how Rau's IAS Study Circle was using the basement as a library and endangering the lives of students and staff.

The civic body had on Sunday sealed at least 13 "illegal" coaching centres in Delhi's Old Rajinder Nagar after the flooding of the basement of Rau's IAS Study Circle in the same area.

The coaching centres that were sealed included IAS Gurukul, Chahal Academy, Plutus Academy, Sai Trading, IAS Setu, Topper's Academy, Dainik Samvad, Civils Daily IAS, Career Power, 99 Notes, Vidya Guru, Guidance IAS, and Easy for IAS.

"These coaching centres were found to be operating in basements in violation of rules and they were sealed on the spot and notices were pasted," an order by MCD Mayor Shaili Oberoi said.

The Rau's IAS Study Circle was already sealed by the police and its owner and the coordinator have been arrested and charged with culpable homicide.

Delhi Coaching Centre Deaths

Tanya Soni, 25, had come to Delhi from Telangana and was a native of Bihar's Aurangabad. A student of Delhi University, she had been staying at a women's hostel of Maharaja Agrasen College and had taken admission to the coaching institute one and a half months ago.

Shreya Yadav, also 25, was a native of Uttar Pradesh's Ambedkar Nagar. She earlier used to stay at a PG Hostel in west Delhi's Shadipur area and had taken admission to the coaching institute two months ago. She had done her BSc in agriculture from a college in Uttar Pradesh.

28-year-old Nevin Delvin, from Ernakulam in Kerala, was pursuing PhD in Arts and Aesthetics from Jawaharlal Nehru University. He had joined the coaching institute eight months ago but had been staying in rented accommodation near the university in the Vasant Kunj area.