'Jab tak MCD Commissioner nahi aaega tab tak...': Students protest near Karol Bagh metro station in Delhi after coaching centre deaths

Several students held a protest near the Karol Bagh metro station after three of their fellow aspirants died due to heavy rainfall which led to the flooding of the basement of a coaching centre in Delhi's Old Rajendra Nagar area.

A protesting student at the site told a police officer, "Jab tak MCD Commissioner nahi aaega tab tak hum nahi hatenge (We won't leave until the MCD Commissioner arrives.)" Other students were seen shouting slogans 'We want justice'.

MCD officials revealed on Sunday that the basement of the coaching institute in Old Rajendra Nagar, where three civil services aspirants died due to rain-induced flooding, was illegally operating as a library. According to the building plan and the No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the fire department, Rao's IAS Study Circle had falsely declared the basement as a parking and storage area.

 "In the building completion certificate of the institute, it is clearly written that it can only be used for parking and storage in the basement. It means that the library was running illegally in the basement," PTI quoted an MCD official saying.

Three civil services aspirants lost their lives on Saturday when the basement of a coaching center in Old Rajinder Nagar, central Delhi, flooded after heavy rains. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) Commissioner Ashwani Kumar, who assumed his role in June, has already suspended several officers from the corporation's building department.

Last week, three officers from the department in the zone where the coaching center is located were suspended. The coaching institute had falsely declared the basement as a parking and storage area to both the building authorities and the fire department, violating multiple norms, according to Delhi Fire Services Chief Atul Garg.

Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi has ordered strict action against coaching institutes violating building bye-laws and has called for an investigation to determine if any MCD officers were responsible for the incident. The bodies of two female students and one male student were recovered from the site during a rescue operation conducted by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), police, and fire department.