Delhi: Two months after the tragic drowning of three civil services aspirants in a waterlogged basement in Old Rajinder Nagar, little has changed in terms of the safety concerns plaguing students in the area.
Following the incident, attention shifted to the capital’s inadequate safety and disaster management systems. Illegal basements used as study centres and libraries, along with rampant encroachments by coaching centres, had turned the neighbourhood into a hazard whenever it rained, drawing nationwide scrutiny.
Initially, students hoped their protests would lead to tangible change. Despite multiple sit-ins, the situation remains largely unchanged.
According to several aspirants, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) took steps to desilt the clogged drains in the area. However, the results are far from visible, as waterlogging continues to be a persistent problem whenever it rains.
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Aditya Kumar, a resident of Patna and an IAS aspirant at Next IAS, believes that waterlogging remains an issue due to the student community’s lack of commitment to their cause.
“The aspirants had started the movement, and they had a clear list of demands that they wanted to make to the authorities. After a month, when the MCD had started draining the water and removing the illegal ramps and other encroachments, they left their demands by the wayside and resumed their studies,” he said.
“There are multiple libraries here that operate from their basements. Thankfully, none of them are functioning now, which is a blessing considering how hard it rained this time. There’s no telling what might have happened,” said Shrishti Jaswal, another IAS aspirant.
Although the curtains have been drawn on most of these libraries and coaching centres operating from their basements, an alternative still needs to be found.
On the other hand, Sreemathi Nair emphasised that the government should establish alternative libraries in the area to serve as substitutes for the basement libraries.
“I have started going to a library nearby that is on the second floor. The problem is that these libraries on the second or third floors are all very expensive. I have to dish out Rs 6,000 each month just to book myself a seat. I was paying only about Rs 3,000 before. I don’t have enough disposable cash just lying around, but I need to complete my studies,” she said. She further stated that this was where the government should support them by establishing a proper library in the area. She added that it didn’t have to be free and that the membership fee could be higher than what is typically charged for a regular library.
On the other hand, the deaths of the three aspirants led to the shutdown of RAU’s IAS Study Circle, which remains closed, with police barricades neatly placed in front of its gates. An idle water pump stands nearby as students hope that no other centre will face the same fate as RAU’s.
Recently, on September 23, Abhishek Gupta, the Chief Executive Officer of RAU’s, secured interim bail at the Rouse Avenue court. The bail bond amounted to Rs 1 lakh, alongside two sureties of the same amount.
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Meanwhile, the four co-owners— Parvinder Singh, Tajinder Singh, Harvinder Singh, and Sarbjit Singh—secured their bail on September 13. They sought bail on the grounds that they were merely the landlords of the basement rented out to the coaching centre and had no role in the tragedy.
The Delhi High Court bench, led by Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma, directed them to deposit a sum of Rs 5 crore to the Red Cross, stating that they had committed an “act of greed” by renting out the basement.
The tragic flooding of the basement on July 27 resulted in the deaths of three aspirants: Shreya Yadav (25) from Uttar Pradesh, Tanya Soni (25) from Telangana, and Nevin Delvin (24) from Kerala. Many aspirants at the time believed that more than three bodies had been recovered from the scene.
