Indus Valley Times

NEW DELHI, JULY 28 : Three students, were found dead, and a few others are feared trapped after after the basement of a building housing a popular civil service coaching centre was flooded in central Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar area on Saturday, officials said.

The bodies of two female students and a male student were retrieved from the site during the rescue operation by the NDRF, local police and fire department, the official said.

As per preliminary enquiry, the water flooded the basement due to heavy rains.

According to a Fire Department official, they received a distress call at 7 p.m. about flooding in the basement of the Rao IAS Coaching Institute. In response, seven fire tenders and rescue vehicles were dispatched to the site. Local police also arrived at the scene and cordoned off the area to facilitate the rescue efforts.

Sharing details about the incident, Deputy Commissioner of Police (central) M Harsh Vardhan said they received information around 7 pm that the basement of a UPSC coaching institute in Rajender Nagar has been flooded with water with the possibility of some students trapped in it.

“Immediately the local police responded to the call and reached the spot i.e. the basement of the coaching institute,” the DCP said.

Notably, Delhi was lashed with heavy rains on Saturday evening which caused severe waterlogging in several parts of the city, including Rajender Nagar area of central Delhi which bore witness to this incident.

“We are investigating the matter that how the entire basement got flooded. It appears that the basement got flooded very quickly and some people got trapped inside the basement,” the senior officer told mediapersons at the incident site.

Following the incident, Delhi Minister Atishi ordered a magisterial enquiry into the incident and directed the Chief Secretary to submit a report within 24 hours.

“This is a very unfortunate incident and needs to be investigated on an urgent basis. Strongest possible action needs to be taken against those whose negligence has caused this incident. Whoever is found guilty should not be spared and action needs to be taken against them,” the Minister said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP leaders, including local parliamentarians, reached the spot to take stock of the situation. They came down down heavily on the ruling AAP government and held Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and local MLA Durgesh Pathak responsible for the death of the two students, for not desilting the drains which possibly led to the waterlogging

Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, who is at the mishap site along with MP Bansuri Swaraj, said it was a clear case of dealt mishap caused due to non cleaning of drains and the drain water has backflowed into the basement of the coaching centre at a very high speed.

“Delhi Government’s criminal negligence is responsible for this mishap. Jal Board Minister Atishi and MLA Durgesh Pathak should take responsibility and resign,” Sachdeva said.

-The New Indian Express