UPSC coaching centre deaths: Blame game in House, Home sets up probe panel

Dhankhar said the culture of coaching centres has become no less than a “gas chamber” and stressed the need to examine the huge expenditure incurred on newspaper advertisements by them. “I find that the youth demographic dividend of the country has to be nurtured. I further find that coaching has become virtually commerce,” he said. He also pointed out the high sums earned by the coaching centres, leading to commercialisation of education.

“Coachings have become a flourishing industry with high returns… every time we read a newspaper, front one or two pages are by way of advertisements… Every penny spent on advertisement is coming from the students, every new building is coming from the students,” he said.

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal Khattar took part in the discussion.

Pradhan said that while education is in the Concurrent List, states cannot shirk their responsibility when it comes to cracking down on illegal coaching institutes.

Police personnel stand guard during an anti-encroachment drive by the MCD in Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar, Monday. (Express photo by Amit Mehra )

He told the House that the Centre had sent directives to all states in 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2024 for regulating coaching institutes. The directives were aimed at registration of the coaching institutes and prescribing minimum standards that these institutes must follow, he said. It also asked the states to monitor the functioning of the coaching institutes and penalise them for any lapses, he added.

“The Centre has sent an advisory to all states about coaching centres. If that was followed, this incident would not have happened. It is the state’s responsibility. You cannot shirk the responsibility,” Pradhan said, adding, “We must pin responsibility to prevent such incidents from recurring”.

Khattar, who spoke after Pradhan, accused the Delhi government of “carelessness”. He said the AAP government’s alleged negligence led to the three deaths. He alleged that the AAP-run Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Delhi government were responsible and accused the AAP dispensation of not maintaining sewer lines in the national capital that extend up to Haryana.

Khattar said the coaching institute was given a no objection certificate (NOC) by the MCD despite having no clearance to run classes in the basement of the building. He said a student of the institute had lodged a complaint on the MCD’s complaints portal, pointing to its abysmal condition. This too was “ignored”, he said.

Participating in the debate, AAP member Sanjay Singh defended the Delhi government, claiming that it has managed the city’s sewer lines well. The AAP government has provided piped water to 99.6% people in unregulated colonies, installed over 4,000 km sewer lines in over 1,000 unregulated colonies, changed 3,500 km water pipelines and 3,100 km sewer lines, and installed 7,300 km new water pipeline, he said.

On why the coaching centre was allowed to operate in Delhi, Singh said such coaching centres have been functioning for the last 20-25 years, during which the BJP had largely been running the MCD. He added that the Delhi minister in-charge had asked officials to carry out desilting activities in the city, but “they were not listening, with the control of services being with the Lt Governor”, who reports to the Centre.

The discussion saw several Opposition leaders accusing the Centre of allowing coaching institutes to multiply in the country. At the same time, the INDIA bloc MPs sought to steer clear of blaming the AAP, their alliance partner.

While some Opposition MPs like the DMK’s Tiruchi Siva put the blame squarely on the L-G for allegedly not allowing the elected AAP government to function, the members of the Congress, RJD, CPI(M), CPI and IUML were of the opinion that the coaching institutes should be blamed and the Centre should be held responsible for their mushrooming across the country.

Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs constituted a committee to look into the reasons, fix responsibility, suggest measures and recommend policy changes. The panel, comprising Additional Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; Principal Secretary (Home), Delhi Government; Special CP, Delhi Police; Fire Advisor; with the Joint Secretary, MHA as its convener, will have to submit its report in 30 days. —With PTI inputs