Rajya Sabha today took up a short-duration discussion on the recent tragic incident of the death of students in a coaching institute in Delhi due to alleged negligence of authorities. Initiating the discussion, Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi of BJP termed the incident as criminal negligence demanding a detailed investigation into this matter and fixing the responsibilities. He alleged that despite raising concerns about the building bylaws, no step was taken to clean the drainage system. Questioning the Delhi government, he said, the Delhi Jal Board’s deficit has reached 74 thousand crore rupees and several allegations of corruption have been levelled against the Board. He also questioned how much money was spent on the cleaning of drainage systems by the city government agencies. He said, no comment came from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on this tragic incident. Mr Trivedi asked the Delhi government to make a list of Coaching Centers that follow the norms.
Derek O’Brien of TMC also expressed concern over the incident. He however questioned why the house was not allowed to discuss the issues related to the Railway accident, Manipur violence, NEET examination, floods in Assam as well as unemployment and farmer’s issues. He also raised the issue of suicide of students across the country. He said that the commodification of Education was not properly addressed in the National Education Policy. Tiruchi Siva of DMK also spoke on the issue.
Intervening in the debate, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, there has been negligence in this matter and those responsible should be held accountable. He said, the Centre had issued guidelines in January this year on the regulation of coaching centres. Mr Pradhan said, if these guidelines were ensured, such a tragedy would not have occurred.
Aam Aadmi Party’s Swati Maliwal said students from all over the country throng to the coaching centres in Delhi in the hopes of becoming Civil servants. She said these coaching centres are mushrooming in the national capital unchecked. She demanded that strict action should be taken against all those who are responsible for the recent incident. Ms Maliwal, Delhi government should give one crore rupees as compensation for the death of each of the youths. The discussion is underway.
Earlier, allowing short duration discussion, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said the issue concerns the country’s promising youth, urban infrastructure as well as other aspects of governance. The Chairman said, the coaching has become virtually commerce and every time he reads a newspaper, the front one or two pages are of coaching centres advertisements.
Participating in the debate, M Thambidurai of AIADMK demanded that coaching centres must be abolished. He asked why coaching centres are necessary when the government is already spending a lot of money in schools and colleges and all infrastructure has been created.
Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi said there is a lack of opportunities in the country due to which youths in the country are suffering. She cited unemployment in the nation as the root cause of such tragedies. She demanded strict regulations regarding coaching centres.
Jaya Bachchan of the Samajwadi Party said this is a grave issue which should not be politicised. She criticised agencies like CPWD and NDMC for not doing their work with commitment.
V Vijayasai Reddy of YSRCP said the coaching centres in Delhi are not maintaining standards and there is a lack of infrastructure. Mr Reddy also stressed the need to constitute a monitoring body. He said, there is a need to ban such coaching centres or regulate them.
Replying to the discussion, Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal termed the deaths of the youths as an irreparable loss to the families and the nation. The Minister said responsibility should definitely be fixed on the matter. He blamed the lackadaisical approach of the agencies for the tragedy, wondering how permissions were given to the coaching centre to operate from the basement. Mr Lal said timely action by the concerned agencies could have saved the lives of the youths. He also blamed the Delhi government for negligence and not preparing well ahead to deal with Delhi monsoons. He said the city government should ensure proper civil amenities for the people.
