The tragic incident of water logging in Rau's IAS Study Circle at Delhi's Rajender Nagar which claimed lives of three UPSC aspirants has now reached the Delhi High Court. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the high court seeking a high level committee to probe the incident.
The petition has made the Delhi Development Authority, MCD, Delhi government parties to the case and has raised crucial questions pertaining to regulation of commercial properties in Delhi. The PIL accuses the above-mentioned Delhi authorities of violating Article 21 by taking away the right to die with dignity and seeks probe into the said incident along with other such past incidents.
"It is respectfully submitted that due to huge corruption involved in the departments of the Respondents many people losing their lives since years and the Capital of India has faced many terrible and scary incidents in past few years. In a recent incident which happened in a coaching institute situated in Rajendra Nagar, New Delhi wherein three young Civil Servant aspirants have lost their lives and many others are struggling between life and death due to negligence of the Respondent No. 1 to 4," the petition read.
The PIL points out that the primary investigation by police has revealed that the basement was allocated for Store keeping however the said Coaching institute has installed a library in the basement and due to this illegal activity and negligence of MCD officers 3 students have lost their life and many are struggling for their lives in Hospital.
"It also came to the Notice that some Student has already made a complaint about the illegal library in the said Coaching centre in the month of June but the Respondents have not taken any action or might have taken bribery from the coaching institute for not taking any action," the PIL read.
The PIL states that this was not the first incident in Delhi and many such unfortunate events have taken place in the past few years, but the Authorities in Delhi have never taken any preventive measures to avoid such scary incidents.
"Last Year in the Month of June one incident of Fire took place in Mukherjee Nagar, Delhi this Hon’ble Court had taken suo moto cognizance of the said incident and have issued Notice to Fire Department and Govt. of NCT of Delhi seeking status report, this Hon’ble Court has also issued direction to crack down on coaching centres running in violation of safety measures, but the death of 3 young students has proved that the direction of Hon’ble High Court was not complied by the Respondents."
The PIL further states that in Delhi, More than 50% of the commercial building are running in an illegal manner and many of them are running in residential areas that too without having any proper approval and clearances and the Delhi authorities who are well aware about their illegal functioning are allowing them just for the sake of few bribery amount. "And because of few corrupt officers many are losing their lives and the Capital of India is facing an embarrassing situation again and again."
The PIL states several past incidents including the Uphar Cinema incident of 1997.
It further states that in 2019, 43 people died while over 50 were injured after a deadly fire swept through an unregistered bag factory in Delhi’s Anaj Mandi Area. Another incident of 2022, where fire began on the first floor of the four storey office and commercial building in Mundka, Delhi, killed 27 people and left 40 people injured.
"The said building did not have clearance from the Fire department and was not equipped with Fire extinguishers. And the said building has single entry and exit point, which clearly shows that neither FIR department nor MCD officers have done their duty and might have allowed the illegal commercial functioning at the said building."
The plea also cites the recent incident where seven new born baby died and 12 were rescued following a fire took place at baby care, New Born Hospital, a children Hospital in East Delhi’s Vivek Vihar
.