A civil services aspirant from Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior has claimed he lodged a complaint about the alleged illegal use of the basement at Rau’s IAS Study Circle in New Delhi a month before a tragic incident in which three students drowned. Kishore Singh Kushwaha stated that had the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) acted promptly on his complaint, the students’ lives could have been saved. Three civil services aspirants, including two women, drowned on Saturday night in the basement of Rau’s IAS Study Circle in the Old Rajinder Nagar area when it got flooded due to heavy rains.

Kushwaha, who is preparing for the UPSC examinations in Gwalior, reported to the media that he had uploaded his complaint on the central government’s Public Grievances (PG) portal on 26 June, news agency PTI reported. He highlighted that classes and libraries were being operated from the basements of Rau’s IAS Study Circle and other institutes in the national capital.

Kushwaha further claimed that he had sent two reminders on 15 July and 22 July, but no action was taken by the concerned officials at the MCD, where the complaint was forwarded.

“I had sent a complaint against the illegal use of the basement at the IAS coaching centre on the central government’s PG portal nearly a month before the tragic incident, but MCD did not pay heed to it. I sent reminders on July 15 as well as on July 22, but no action was taken,” Kushwaha said.

“Basements are only for storage purposes, but classes are held there and they are also used as libraries without permission from authorities,” he added. as quoted by PTI.

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IAS Aspirant Claims Illegal Use Of Basements Extends To Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar And Other Education Hubs

Kushwaha also pointed out that the issue is not confined to Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar area but extends to Mukherjee Nagar and other education hubs like Gwalior, Kota, Patna, Indore, and Jaipur. He alleged that coaching centres run libraries in their basements, putting students’ lives at risk.

“These buildings are in a dilapidated state and they have permission to use their basements only for storage. But to save money and by bribing local civic body officials, their owners obtain permissions to run classes there,” he alleged, as per PTI.

Kushwaha urged the central government and the local administration to take cognisance of even the smallest complaints and act on them promptly.