Scores of civil services aspirants gathered on the main street of Rajinder Nagar and near the Karol Bagh metro station on Pusa Road to protest against the death of three students in a coaching centre in the area flooded with water on Saturday evening following heavy rain.
According to police, the students were allowed to protest with an assurance that their demand would be taken up with concerned agencies. However, the police had to disperse the protestors from Pusa Road as the carriageways, which are part of one of the main arterial roads in the city, remained jammed for a long time, DCP Central said.
The police official also expressed empathy with the students, understanding their grief and concern of losing a fellow student and said that no case was registered against them so it will not affect their career. They have been demanding justice since last night after the incident took place in old Rajinder Nagar in which three aspirants lost their lives.
Students living in the area studying at different institutes expressed their anger over the incident flagging several alleged violations at coaching centres. They asked how the draining of water could take so long as to cause waterlogging on the roads.
Not long ago, another UPSC aspirant died due to electrocution in Delhi’s Patel Nagar area while on his way to his accommodation from a nearby library. Due to waterlogging in the lane where his paying guest accommodation was located, he had taken the support of an iron gate on the lane to cross the clogged section and was allegedly electrocuted.
Meanwhile, the owner and the coordinator of the said the coaching centre have been arrested by the police while a probe is underway in the matter. The authorities have assured strict action against those found to be responsible behind the reasons for the incident
The Delhi mayor said that the coaching centre had allegedly flouted building by-laws of the civic body. It has permission to use the basement for parking, not for any other purpose.
The incident took place on Saturday evening following the heavy rain that triggered waterlogging leading to the flooding of the coaching centre’s basement.
Concerned agencies, including the fire services, police and the NDRF launched a search and rescue operation, and later recovered the bodies of the three including a female.