NEW DELHI: Even as the issue of the death of three IAS aspirants Shreya Yadav, Nevin Dalvin and Tanya Soni at a coaching centre due to the flooding of the building’s basement resonated in Parliament on Monday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) constituted a five-member committee to probe the reasons leading to the tragedy.
The panel will identify the reasons, fix responsibility and recommend policy changes, official sources said.
Consisting of the Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the panel has been asked to submit its report in a month. It also consists of the Principal Secretary (Home) in the Delhi Government, Special Commissioner of the Delhi Police, Fire Adviser and a Joint Secretary of the Union Home Ministry, who will be the convener of the panel.
Meanwhile, cutting across party lines, several lawmakers raised the issue in Parliament, including BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj, Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor and Kannauj MP Akhilesh Yadav. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan didn’t have a definite reply when asked whether any action would be taken against similar coaching centres. In a related development, seven persons have been arrested in connection with the incident, while one junior engineer of the MCD has been sacked and an assistant engineer of the corporation has been suspended. The arrested persons include the owner of the building where the incident took place, his son and the coaching centre’s coordinator.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Monday met agitating students at the incident site and later announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each to the families of the deceased. Incidentally, the MCD used bulldozers to remove encroachments on the pavement in front of the entrance of the coaching centre, two days after three IAS aspirants, including two women, reportedly drowned after rainwater gushed into the basement of the building.
In Parliament on Monday, when Congress MP KC Venugopal during Question Hour sought to know from Pradhan whether the government would take any action against such coaching centres and if any guidelines were in place, the minister evaded a direct reply. He said, “I will like to assure the House that this government is committed to socio-psychological protection of all students, whether they are studying in a coaching centre or in an institution, from school education to higher education.”