Three UPSC aspirants lost their lives after being trapped in the basement of a coaching center in Central Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar, which was flooded when a drain burst during heavy rains.
The sequence of events began around 7 PM on Saturday when the Delhi Fire Services received an urgent call about the flooding at Rau’s IAS Study Circle.
Five fire tenders were dispatched for rescue operations, and divers from the National Disaster Response Force were also deployed. However, a faculty member at the coaching center criticized the decision, suggesting that divers should have been prioritized over fire tenders.
Despite the rapid response, the rescue efforts faced significant challenges. The basement, housing the center’s library, filled with 10-12 feet of water almost instantaneously, leaving the students with no time to escape.
By 10:30 PM and then 11:20 PM, the bodies of two female students were recovered. The search for a third individual continued into the night.
Eyewitnesses described the panic and chaos as the basement flooded. The Met department’s PUSA weather station reported 31.5 mm of rain between 5:30 PM and 8:30 PM, contributing to the sudden deluge. Initial evacuation attempts were hampered by severe traffic jams, delaying the arrival of rescue teams.
The tragedy has sparked a political firestorm. The BJP has launched a fierce attack on AAP, blaming the incident on the negligence of the area’s legislator. AAP’s Durgesh Pathak, the MLA from Rajinder Nagar, attributed the flooding to a burst drain and assured that pumps were being used to remove the water. He argued that if the issue was due to a lack of desilting, other buildings would have been similarly affected.
Bansuri Swaraj, the BJP MP from New Delhi, accused the MLA of ignoring repeated pleas to clean the Rajendra Nagar drain, suggesting that the negligence led to the fatal incident.
Twenty-six-year-old Nilesh Rai, another UPSC aspirant, was electrocuted on July 22 while trying to navigate a waterlogged lane near his paying guest accommodation in South Patel Nagar. He was electrocuted when he touched an iron gate, which had become live due to contact with a naked wire.
PWD Minister Atishi has directed the Chief Secretary to submit a report within 24 hours, emphasizing the need for immediate and severe action against those responsible for the negligence that led to the deaths. Rajinder Nagar, known as a hub for coaching centers and student accommodations, has a history of such incidents. Just last year, a fire at a coaching center in Mukherjee Nagar, another educational hub, resulted in over 60 injuries.