Expressing concern over the death of three UPSC aspirants in a coaching centre in Delhi on Monday in the Rajya Sabha, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar drew attention to the expenditure coaching centres make on newspaper advertisements out of the fees charged from the students.

He remarked that the coaching culture has become no less than a ‘Gas chamber’.

The three UPSC aspirants lost their lives due to the flooding of the basement of a coaching institute in the Rajinder Nagar area on Saturday evening.

Allowing a short-duration discussion under rule 176 in the upper house on the tragic death of the UPSC aspirants due to waterlogging, Dhankhar said, “I find that youth demographic dividend of the country has to be nurtured, I further find that coaching has become virtually commerce….”

The Rajya Sabha chairman said coaching centres have become a flourishing industry with high returns. “Coaching has become a flourishing industry with high returns… and the kind of advertisements, I said need to be examined. Every penny spent on advertisement is coming from the student. Every new building is coming from the student! So, there is really a need for an approach that can go a long way in tackling it,” he said.

Comparing the silos created in the country by coaching culture to ‘Gas Chambers’, Dhankhar said “…..In a country where opportunities are getting enlarged this silo is turning out to be a problem…….they are becoming no less than a gas chamber….”

He urged the members to make the youth aware of various other employment and skill opportunities available in the country.

Regretting the practice of boycott and rebuff by floor leaders of certain parties when they are called for discussion and making suggestions to ensure the functioning of the house to the Chairman’s chamber, the Rajya Sabha chairman said, “Let me share my anguish, let me share my pain. This chairman when he makes a request for honorable members for a conference in the chamber, this rebuff is not only unprecedented, but dilution of Parliamentary decorum. The fact that floor leaders virtually seek to boycott the Chairman in the chamber is certainly not a healthy practice.”

Earlier, Rajya Sabha members, including Sudhanshu Trivedi and Swati Maliwal, gave notice under rule 267 to discuss the matter of the death of the UPSC aspirants.

The Rajya Sabha chairman allowed a short-duration discussion under rule 176 as Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju was ready to discuss the matter under rule 267 citing the matter as urgent but Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and other Opposition parties disagreed to discuss the matter under rule 267 and Chairman made it categorically clear that anything under rule 267 will only be discussed if the major parties agree and with the consensus of the House.

The VP said he “deems it appropriate to have a short duration discussion or a calling attention” in the Rajya Sabha, and would hold a meeting with the leaders of all parties in his chamber on this issue.

Allowing the short duration discussion under Rule 176 on the issue, Dhankhar said, “The issue concerns our promising youth…. urban infrastructure as well as other aspects of governance… Under these circumstances, I deem it proper to allow for a Short Duration Discussion under Rule 176 immediately after the Question Hour. These discussions may normally be confined to two and half hours.”