Delhi coaching centre deaths trigger blame game among parties

The death of the three students due to sudden flooding in the basement of a coaching institute in Rajendra Nagar in West Delhi led to a blame game among political parties. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Delhi unit has blamed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government and municipality for “criminal negligence” and “lack of desilting” leading to the deaths, while Delhi urban development minister Saurabh Bharadwaj laid the blame on lack of any action taken by the lieutenant governor (LG) against officials who have not undertaken the desilting work properly.
LG VK Saxena, while ordering a probe by the divisional commissioner in the case, said Delhi was misgoverned in the past ten years. The Congress said it had made Delhi an “international city” but now the Capital of India is suffering from the “brunt of indifference”.
LG Saxena, in an official statement, said, “Drainage in the city and related infrastructure, as also required efforts and endeavours to address these, have collapsed and it is indicative of the larger malaise of misgovernance that Delhi has been subjected to during the last decade or so.”
He added: “I am deeply anguished by the death of three civil services aspirants due to water logging in the basement of a coaching centre and that of another student due to water logging-related electrocution. That this should happen in the Capital is most unfortunate and unacceptable. Reportedly seven other citizens have died due to electrocution in the past few days…These incidents point towards criminal neglect and failure of basic maintenance and administration by concerned agencies and departments.”
Responding to the statement, urban development minister Bharadwaj posted a June 28 video of a pre-monsoon internal meeting of the Delhi government where he is seen talking about the lack of desilting of drains. “Everyone is saying that the work of removing silt from drains and sewers in Delhi was not done properly. Due to this, there was waterlogging in Delhi. It is the negligence of the coaching institute but a big conspiracy has been hatched against the people of Delhi. The government can neither transfer these officers nor take any action against them. Only LG can take action,” he said.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said: “The same ministers who were boasting about cleaning drains and sewers until Saturday morning are now, on Sunday, blaming officials for the lack of cleanliness…the purpose of the meeting was not to ensure the cleaning of drains and sewers but to create videos to mislead the public into thinking that they wanted the work done but the officials did not cooperate.”
Meanwhile, leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said: “The death of competitive students due to waterlogging in the basement of a building in Delhi is very unfortunate. This collapse of infrastructure is a collective failure of the system. The common citizen is paying the price of unsafe construction, poor town planning and irresponsibility of institutions at every level by losing his life.”
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said: “The Congress had made Delhi an international city. Today the capital of India is suffering the brunt of indifference. Accidents keep happening every day. It is a matter of great concern for all of us that such an incident took place in the country’s capital. We have to improve our capital so that our citizens remain safe and those who live and visit here can be assured that they will not be neglected in the country’s capital.”