The Delhi High Court on Wednesday came down heavily on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led government and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) over the death of three UPSC aspirants at a coaching centre in the national capital and said that there is an “underlying malice” on the part of the administration and all the departments are just “busy passing the buck”.
Acting chief justice of the high court Manmohan stated that the incident is clearly a case of “Criminal Neglect” and firmly said that the court would straight pass the orders if the administration won’t take responsibility.
“We’ll ask the CVC or the Lokpal to take action,” it said.
The bench ordered the Investigation officer and the MCD Commissioner to be present for the hearing on Friday.
It also ordered the authorities to remove all encroachments on drains in Rajinder Nagar area by Friday.
The bench slammed the authorities saying that such tragedies are bound to happen when there is no collection of taxes due to a “freebies culture”.
“You want to have freebies culture, don’t want to collect taxes… this is bound to happen,” the bench, also comprising Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, said.
The court further slammed the police saying that that it has not taken any action against any MCD official but have arrested a passerby.
It was referring to the arrest of an SUV driver who was driving on the road during the incident. The police alleged the driver’s negligent driving caused the gate of the academy to break and exacerbated the flooding of the basement.
The ACJ further observed that there is “no master plan” for drainage in Delhi since 1980.
“No MCD officer will know where the drain goes. I don’t know whether these civic agencies exist at the ground level or not.”
The court said they need to build infrastructure but are bankrupt and can’t even pay salaries. It said that multi-storey buildings were being allowed to operate but there was no proper drainage.
“You are permitting multi-storey buildings but there is no proper drain. Your civic authorities are bankrupt. If you don’t have money to pay salaries, how will you upgrade infrastructure? You want freebie culture. You’re not collecting any money, so you’re not spending any money,” the ACJ stated.
Earlier today, A delegation of UPSC aspirants met MCD Commissioner Ashwani Kumar at the agency headquarters amid protests that have erupted following the tragic incident. The students have approached Kumar to discuss the poor safety measures at several coaching centres that pose a threat to their lives, among other issues.
Three IAS aspirants — Shreya Yadav from Uttar Pradesh, Tanya Soni from Telangana and Nevin Dalwin from Kerala — died after the basement of a building housing Rau’s IAS Study Circle coaching institute was flooded following rain on Saturday evening.
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