The Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva and New Delhi MP Bansuri Swaraj called for cases to be registered against the Delhi government, the MCD, and the Jal Board, along with the owners of the coaching centre where three civil services aspirants died as rainwater flooded in the building’s basement.
Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, they also demanded action on the death of a civil services aspirant in Patel Nagar last week.
The BJP leaders demanded the resignation of Delhi Minister Atishi and suspension of concerned local officials, for a fair and impartial investigation into the matter.
Lashing out at the minister, Delhi BJP’s media chief Praveen Shankar Kapoor alleged that Atishi did not find time to even visit the site of the mishap till Sunday noon. He was also critical of local AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak for blaming locals for encroaching drains.
Sachdeva said the unfortunate death of the four students has sent a clear message that in their (the AAP government’s) eyes, these students have no value. He demanded that the Delhi government ensure that the bodies of the deceased students, Shreya Yadav, Tanya Soni, and Nevin Dalvin, be handed over to their respective families immediately after postmortem.
He also demanded that the Delhi government should provide compensation of Rs 1 crore each to their families, including the family of the student who died last week due to electrocution in Patel Nagar.
Sachdeva lamented that even after the Mukherjee Nagar coaching center incident, where students were injured, the Delhi Fire Service and Delhi Municipal Corporation have not taken action against coaching centers in Central Delhi. If the Delhi Fire Service and the Delhi Municipal Corporation had enforced the guidelines issued after the Mukherjee Nagar incident, this basement library would have been closed, he contended.
He claimed that the Delhi Jal Board did not clean the sewer lines in Old Rajendra Nagar this year, just like the rest of Delhi, and added that related drains were also not cleaned either, resulting in an unprecedented sewer crisis that led to backflow into not only this coaching center but also some nearby buildings through wall cracks, he claimed.
Local MP Bansuri Swaraj said she, along with other Rajinder Nagar-based leaders, have been warning about the possible damage due to clogged sewers in Old Rajinder Nagar but local AAP leader Durgesh Pathak paid no attention.
Swaraj further said that till 2015, Rajinder Nagar was considered a model assembly constituency of Delhi in terms of roads, greenery, drainage system, and environment. But in the last 10 years of AAP rule, it has been reduced to a modern-day slum with lack of shortage of water haunting it every summer and waterlogging during the monsoon.
She said whatever excuses the Delhi government may offer, one thing is clear this mishap is the result of the criminal negligence of the local MLA. He didn’t even bother to visit the local residents to know their grievances of sanitation and sewer despite being his party’s MCD in charge.
The MP vowed to raise the issue of Old Rajinder Nagar and South Patel Nagar deaths in the Lok Sabha.
Meanwhile, Sachdeva cancelled all his engagements for today in solidarity with the deceased students and directed the Karol Bagh district BJP president and his party’s local leaders to provide all possible support to the families of the victims.