What Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Rau IAS coaching deaths

In a sombre address to the Rajya Sabha, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan held negligence responsible for the deaths of three civil services aspirants at a prominent coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar, New Delhi.

“There was negligence. Only when accountability is fixed, will there be a solution... It is our responsibility to ensure that such an incident is not repeated,” Pradhan stated, as quoted by ANI.

The incident, which occurred at Rau’s IAS Study Circle, has sparked a fierce debate over the regulation of coaching centres. In an earlier session of the Lok Sabha, Pradhan highlighted that the government had issued guidelines for the regulation of coaching centres in January of this year.

“Without an approved building, without any facility, some of the coaching centres become mafia... is the government going to take any action?” Pradhan asked, according to PTI.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has laid the blame on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the deaths of Shreya Yadav, Tanya Soni, and Niwin Dalwin at the coaching centre. BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi expressed deep disappointment over the lack of visible remorse from those responsible.

“The government which should have regulated the coaching institutes seriously failed to do so. The incident which took place is very unfortunate... It is sad that those who were responsible for them, not only did they not shed any tears nor did they have any tension on their faces,” Trivedi said in the Rajya Sabha.

In response to the tragedy, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) allegedly failed to take swift action. It, however, terminated a junior engineer and suspended an assistant engineer in connection with the deaths. Furthermore, the civic body sealed 13 illegal coaching centres in an anti-encroachment drive following the incident.

Rau’s IAS Study Circle, where the three students met their untimely end after the basement was flooded due to heavy rain, has also been sealed by the police.

MCD Commissioner Ashwani Kumar confirmed to PTI that decisive steps are being taken to prevent such incidents in the future. “A junior engineer has been terminated and an assistant engineer suspended in connection with the deaths at the coaching centre,” Kumar stated.

[With agency inputs]