DFS officials spotted books, shelves, but ‘missed’ library in Rau’s IAS Study Circle

Students at the coaching centre, however, say the library was functional for at least a year before the inspecting team arrived there.

On July 1, less than four weeks days before three students were tragically killed after a basement at Rau’s IAS Study Circle in Old Rajendra Nagar flooded, a team of two senior officials from the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) visited the coaching centre’s basement. However, despite the basement being packed with books, bookshelves, tables, chairs and computers (CHECK), the team was unable to comprehend that the space was being used to run an illegal library for more than a year, said three fire officers aware of the matter on Wednesday.

Delhi Police and MCD officials investigates Rau's IAS Study circle at Old Rajendra Nagar area on Monday, July 29. (Arvind Yadav/HT)

Finally, on July 9, the team issued a “fire safety certificate”, valid for three years, for the building housing the centre – granting legal status to the illegal library, which was in violation of DFS’ own statutes. However, the certificate, a copy of which HT has accessed, clearly declares that the building complied with all fire prevention and fire safety requirements in accordance with rules laid down by DFS.

So how did the two officials – divisional officer (DO) Vedpal, and assistant divisional officer (ADO) Udai Vir Singh – miss something so glaringly obvious?

Form H of DFS, which is used to issue fire safety certificates, contained the signature of both the inspecting officers along with some other senior fire officials.

DFS director Atul Garg is the final signing authority in the fire safety certificate issued on July 9.

When asked about their lapses, one of the two inspecting officers said he noticed the tables, chairs and books, but since their visit was early in the morning, there were no students in the building.

ADO Udai Vir Singh said that the inspection was carried out to check the firefighting arrangements installed in the building as per their recommendations and identify the shortcomings, if there were any. “During our visit on July 1, we found tables, chairs and books lying in the basement of the multi-storeyed coaching institute building. Since we were there in the morning, no students were present in the basement. Also, the presence of such items did not raise any suspicion that the basement was being used for any other purpose since the building plan showed that the space was meant for storage. We did not find any normal library or digital-like setup such as a librarian who issues books to students, study cabins, or computers,” said ADO Singh.

DO Vedpal refused to comment when approached by HT.

Another senior fire official, who did not want to be named, said that when the representatives of the coaching institute approached DFS for obtaining the no-objection certificate, the department recommended fire safety arrangements of the “highest category” because they had mentioned that the basement would be used for “storage”.

“If they (the institute) had told us that they would be using the basement for running a library, we would have recommended firefighting arrangements of the medium category such as no provision for having a separate water pump in the basement and multiple sprinklers,” the second fire official said.

A third fire official, who also requested anonymity, said that during the inspection on July 1, an official from the building, Ashok Narang, was present but did not inform the inspecting officers that the basement was being used as a library or study.

HT sent an email to Rau’s IAS Study Circle on their official email address, seeking their response to the allegations. However, no response was received till 7.30 pm.

Students at the coaching centre, however, say the library was functional for at least a year before the inspecting team arrived there.

A 28-year-old student of Rau’s IAS Study Circle, who did not wish to be identified for this report, said that the library had been running for the last one year.

“There were chairs and tables put in the basement and there were study materials as well. There were no fixed seats or cubicles like in other libraries, but students of only our institute would come there daily and study till 7pm,” he said.

On Saturday (July 27) evening, around 35 students were present in the basement when rainwater from waterlogged road outside gushed inside and flooded the basement. While most students managed to escape, three – Tanya Soni, Nivin Dalwin, and Shreya Yadav – were trapped and drowned.