UPSC aspirants boxed in pigeonholes at sky-high rents

UPSC aspirants: Students who come to the national capital to prepare for competitive exams encounter problems like poor ventilation, uncomfortable beds, cramped rooms, unclean restrooms, and brokers’ monopoly in their accommodation.

After three civil services aspirants died in the basement of Rau’s IAS Study Circle due to flooding, students across Mukherjee Nagar and Old Rajinder Nagar organised a demonstration. The candidates described the horrific living conditions in these so-called educational hubs, which claim to provide the best coaching and living spaces for students from various regions.

The students expressed their anger by shouting slogans and taking out marches over the pathetic living conditions, inflated rates of accommodation, poor quality food, and more.

Patriot visited these localities to verify claims made by the aspirants. During the visit, it was found that due to prices of accommodation being high, students are being forced to live in poor conditions. The price of a single room, only 6X4 feet, is approximately Rs 20,000, making it unaffordable for aspirants.

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A month’s rent as security

The struggle does not end there. Students are required to pay one month’s rent in advance as security to the landlord and another month’s rent as brokerage to the broker, totalling nearly Rs 60,000 for a single room in these educational hubs. This raises the question: how can a middle-class student afford such high rents? The answer is that two to three students share a single 6×4 room, splitting the rent equally.

Speaking to Patriot, Aman Sharma, who is preparing for the UPSC exams at Vision IAS in Mukherjee Nagar, said, “I come from a middle-class family, and my father sent me here to pursue my dreams by spending his hard earned money. But there is a nexus of property dealers in the locality, forcing students to pay for rooms that lack proper ventilation and have pathetic living conditions.”

Sharma, who hails from Jharkhand, added, “The prices for accommodation in this area are skyrocketing, which is why I share a single room with two other students. We have partitioned the room using plywood to minimise disturbance while studying. However, the harsh reality is that we can’t study in the room, so we’ve purchased a monthly library subscription. We only visit the room to sleep and freshen up.”

Notably, 90% of the population in these areas consists of students from different regions of the country who came to Delhi’s educational hubs to prepare for various competitive exams. Besides the exorbitant rent, landlords charge high electricity fees, sometimes up to Rs 2,000 per student for rooms without air conditioning.

Gaurav Upadhyay, who hails from Bihar and resides in Old Rajinder Nagar, said, “I have been living in the area for the past 10 months and paying Rs 10,000 for a shared room with two single beds and a fan. Despite 200 units of electricity being free in the national capital, the landlord charges Rs 2,000 per person. I don’t understand how our electricity bill exceeds 200 units, as my roommate and I are not in the room all day due to our three hour coaching classes.”

“We both have library subscriptions and prefer to stay at the library for most of the day. Still, the landlord charges us for electricity. When we asked him about the bill, he said it was a fixed amount that we had to pay every month.”

Another student, who wished to remain anonymous and lives in Old Rajinder Nagar, said, “I share a room. The rent is quite high in this locality. For instance, my roommate and I pay Rs 22,000 for a 10×12 feet room. We wouldn’t mind paying the rent if the facilities were adequate, but that’s not the case here.”

“The room has a small window only and no proper ventilation. Our room is located in the basement of a building with no fire safety measures. The room lacks an air conditioner, and the landlord provides a small cooler that sometimes doesn’t work properly,” he said.

“The landlord is not concerned about the aspirants living in his house; he’s only focussed on the rent. People here seem to lack humanity and are only interested in filling their pockets. This is very disheartening,” he added.

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L-G meets students

The Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena met with aspirants to learn about the problems they encounter in the coaching centres following the terrible incident in Old Rajinder Nagar.

Later, the LG presided over a high-level meeting with the relevant officials in order to resolve the concerns of the students. The LG directed Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to form a committee comprising 5-6 representatives from coaching institutions, student representatives, and officials from relevant departments.

Saxena stated that this committee will comprehensively address all issues related to regulation, exorbitant rents by landlords, fire clearances, desilting of drains, and other immediate needs of students to create a conducive educational environment.

Furthermore, the LG instructed the Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora to take immediate action against exorbitant rental rates and enforce compulsory cash transactions to prevent tax evasion.