A horde of resilient IAS aspirants has constantly been protesting in front of the Rao IAS Academy, Old Rajendra Nagar and in the major coaching hub Mukharji Nagar to attain justice for the three aspirants who died in the water-logged library. After the shocking death (murder) of the IAS aspirants Shreya Yadav, Tanya Soni and Nevin Dalvin through drainage collapse and the rainwater gush in the locked basement-based library of Rao Academy on July 27, the students have been persistently raising their voices to attain justice and to ensure management and security for the civil-aspirants who are enrolled in the same or similar miserable institutes.
‘These are not deaths but murders! We can say this again and again,’ Garima*, an IAS candidate tells FII with a ‘we want justice,’ poster in her hands and a satirical tone. She claimed that the mushrooming IAS industry is ‘a blood-sucking trade,’ that focuses on its professional profit and mixes up with the corrupt temperament of the administration because classes in officially unlawful edifices are not possible without the support of the administration.
In scorching sun during the afternoons and in water-logged streets during rainy nights, the IAS aspirants have been resilient on the protest site to ensure justice, safety and basic rights that they deserve. Regardless of around 35 illegal coaching centres being sealed after the horrible incident, classes are still secretly going on in several illegal basement-based IAS institutes. The ongoing protests have unveiled the ‘joint autocracy,’ and sheer misconduct of the coaching mafias, police, administration, brokers and landlords.
Students against the dangers of lousy infrastructure and miserable facilities
The use of the basement as a residential place is considered illegal. The urban development rules and National Building Codes say that basements can only be used for storage, bank cellars, parking or to protect things that require proper air-conditioning. In contrast, most of these coaching institutes use basements for students who come to the capital with dreams of cracking one of the toughest civil service exams in the world. From Vardhaman Mall of Nehru Vihar to the widespread mainstream centres of Mukharji Nagar, Rajendra Nagar and other areas, numerous buildings are at risk, can fall anytime and are extremely dangerous as study points.
Aastha Kumari*, a student in Sanskriti IAS who came to Vardhaman Mall (coaching hub) to support the evening march towards Pink-Booth of Mukharji Nagar said while pointing towards the sealed gate of Drishti IAS in the basement, ‘I am from the same batch in which the fire incident happened in 2023. We still study in the same classroom. Can you imagine? Also, if the drainage system collapses here, there would be a casualty of at least 200-300 students.‘
In several classrooms roofs or walls are cracked and the cement plasters keep falling on the students, many classes lack adequate fire extinguishers and electric wires are recklessly spread everywhere. Just 3 days before the coaching basement case a 26-year-old UPSC aspirant in Patel Nagar, Delhi succumbed to death due to an electrocuted iron gate in a waterlogged area.
‘If proper investigation scrutinises the buildings, we would find that more than 50 per cent of infrastructures are life-threat and around 50 per cent of poles become electrocuted during the rainy season. Water-logging is the first dangerous concern because there is a card-based biometric system in coaching centres, libraries, and just one narrow exit in case of emergency,’ said another IAS aspirant Subhash Yadav*.
Lining up the police and MCD on the ongoing case on 2nd August, the Delhi Court has raised questions on the ‘non-functioning,’ and dreadful water drains in the area. The HC has also slammed the Delhi Police counsel for ‘not channelling the rainwater,’ in the basement and for acting as ‘powerless,’ instead of taking action against the MCD office.
A delegation of students has tried to connect with authorities numerous times but their responses have not been clear or transparent. An aspirant, Veer* who has been resilient on the leading protest site since the first day complained ‘nobody has taken action against the MCD officials till now. They have arrested the SUV driver, Manuj Kathuria but he is not solely responsible for the collapse of the drainage system while the suspension of junior and assistant engineers of MCD is also not sufficient, because they have nothing to do with illegal libraries or administrative decisions. The compensation of 50 lakhs offered by the coaching centre is not justified.’
The local MLA has promised to build special public libraries with MP-led-funds and Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi has also talked about fund allocation for libraries but nobody is ready to take accountability for the incident.
Meanwhile, the protesters have remarked on the ‘hidden data,’ and the ‘real number of dead students,’ in the Rajendra Nagar case. ‘We want the footage of CCTV in public. I believe that the number is being hidden. We don’t know if they were 3, 6 or 9,’ a previous educator who worked at Drishti IAS for 6 years told FII. Due to the baffling number of ambulances, the witnesses are raising their fingers on the presented official data. Protestors have also filed an RTI and are looking forward to legal proceedings to know the right records.
Action against increment policy, exploitation by brokers and owners, top demand
On 31st July, a press release from the LT. Governor of Delhi, Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena assured students to provide proper facilities, the right infrastructure, immediate crackdown on excessive rentals and fair compensation for the horrible mishaps. ‘A universal complaint of the students was about the general apathy of the area public representatives, MCD and the police officials, apart from exploitative rent seeking by the coaching institutions and landlords of the locality. Honorable LG has assured the students that he would soon call a meeting of all concerned,’ claimed the avowal but the students have not found any ‘satisfactory suitable action,’ on the ground.
The mounting fees of coaching institutes are another big hurdle for the students. As per ranking, the seven prominent IAS Coaching Institutes; First IAS Institute, Vajiram and Ravi, Drishti IAS, Vajirao And Reddy, Rau’s IAS, Vision IAS and ALS IAS, charge in lakhs for different packages. Fat fees with separate monthly expenditures and zero concession are unfair to every competitor but the students from marginalised backgrounds suffer the most.
In the coaching hub of Mukharji Nagar, a horde of students complained against the mounting coaching fee that offers an education with a ‘pure business mindset,’ where C-SAT, GS, test-series, mentorship programs and optional subjects come up with diverse bills. A senior aspirant, Shubham* who is preparing for the upcoming mains in September said, ‘When you admit a patient in a hospital, you receive a list of fees. IAS academies are not different from hospitals. I think Even Shah Rukh Khan does not increase his fees this fast.’
The lack of any committee to regulate the mafias results in a lack of responsibility and despite heavy fees, the institutes don’t promise any security. The business of exploiting some of the finest minds of India grabs netizens with hollow motivational statements that have nothing to do with actual realities. An IAS Academy that charged ₹1,90,000 in May 2023 from Shruti Gupta* of Jharkhand now demands 2,10,000 for the same course. For instance, the Vision IAS Academy has announced ₹2,60,000 fees for its offline ‘foundation course, 2026,’ which will increase to ₹3,05, 000 for the ‘foundation course, 2027.’ A straight upsurge with ₹ 45,000. These institutions rigorously utilise the success stories as a means of advertisement but do nothing for the safety, well-being and peace of the enrolled students.
Students are also burdened by the mounting rent of small rooms and miserable PGs where they face exploitation by brokers and cruel landlords. Allegedly there have been claims on social media of verbal and physical abuse that shed light on the dark side of bright ambitions.
Ravi with courageous slogans on the forefront of the Mukharji Nagar protest said, ‘Studying and living in endangered infrastructures, amid pools of garbage, verbal slurs and massive exploitations doubled by the pressures of success create a life that is too hard to live. We just want justice for those who died and for those who are alive and witnessing the autocracy. Only justice and nothing less than that.’
After the coaching-basement incident, the thread of such incidents has come to light. Whether the student who died by suicide on 21st July 2024 due to increased rent and lack of peace or 61 students who got injured due to fire in Sanskriti Coaching in 2023, the protests have taken a solid stand with suppressed anger of years.
It’s also noteworthy that the students have been active in some movements against property dealers, C-Sat and coaching institutions, but due to a lack of administrative transparency and passable response, they did not succeed much.
What are the other demands of students?
The students have been voicing their demands through 9-pointers divided into instant goals and long-term objectives against the mushrooming arbitrary schemes and the ‘lack of security,’ under the note-printing coaching industry that promises to ‘manufacture,’ IAS officers.
Pointing towards the current horrifying deaths in Rao IAS Academy (murders) and the previous ‘fire mishap,’ in Sanskriti IAS classroom the students are seeking, the ‘arrest of the real culprits,’ ‘transparency to reveal the true number of causalities,’ ‘minimum compensation of 1 crore,’ ‘release of the detained aspirants in the protest,’ and ‘action against unidentified ambulances that patrol on the street to disturb the protest.’
Meanwhile, their long-term demands include ‘an infrastructure committee to ensure good maintenance of classrooms, libraries and PGs,’ and ‘implementation of rent control measures,’ along with ‘reasonable coaching and library fees.’ Documented guarantee of safety is another significant point on the list.
The authorities are trying to ‘manipulate,’ students through diplomatic answers and accusing them of taking ‘external support,’ from residents who are not IAS aspirants. Vishal, a vital young aspirant busy managing water and food for these students said, ‘Police come every morning to eradicate the barricade, anything can happen after this and nobody would take responsibility. They are very clever.‘
Due to the previous episodes of stopping and detaining the students, the protestors in front of the Rao IAS academy have started checking student IDs to keep them safe, while MCD has sent bulldozers to clean up the area and ‘show-off,’ that the administration cares about the struggling aspirants.
Along with ‘Drishti IAS,’ ‘Vajiram & Ravi,’ and ‘Next IAS,’ several organisations have issued meaningless letters to show condolences but these voices of rebellion against the coaching mafia system are now determined to unveil the ‘illegal and unfair practices,’ about other major IAS Hubs of the nation in different cities.
‘What breaks my heart is we have not received any support from the educators we respected the most,’ said Fatima Zaidi while a humble and ‘not so popular,’ teacher was helping the protestors to select members for the delegation on the protest site. Currently, the case has been transferred to CBI by the Delhi High Court and students still await the minimum accountability. They dream of joining the system through civil services but before that, they have to fight the system.
*Name has been changed to protect the identity.
