Delhi’s infra outdated, system needs a rehaul: HC
The Delhi high court has transferred the probe into the drowning of three IAS aspirants at the basement of a coaching centre in Old Rajendra Nagar to the CBI.
The Delhi high court on Friday transferred the probe into the drowning of three IAS aspirants at the basement of a coaching centre in Old Rajendra Nagar to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as it hauled up the police, civic body and state government, saying that the entire system in Delhi needed a relook in light of the city’s “outdated” infrastructure.
The court lambasted the police for the probe into the incident that has triggered a national outrage, criticised the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for failing to act against the officials responsible for the tragedy, and pulled up the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for not upgrading the city’s administrative, physical and financial infrastructure.
“Having regard to the nature of the incident and to ensure that the public has no doubt with regards to the investigation, this court transfers the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation. Since the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) exercises supervisory power, this court directs the Commissioner to appoint a member to supervise the probe,” the court said in its order.
The court’s order to transfer the probe to CBI is a significant indictment of entire administrative setup in Delhi, including the state government, high-ranking bureaucrats, the office of the lieutenant governor (LG), and the Delhi Police. The judicial intervention highlighted the deep-seated issues of accountability, governance and systemic neglect in the national capital at a time when the conflict between LG VK Saxena and the Delhi government over who controls the Capital’s administrative machinery is at a boiling point. The coaching centre tragedy has only intensified the political blame game, with each side accusing the other of negligence.
On July 27, Tanya Soni, 21, Shreya Yadav, 25, and Nevin Dalvin, 29, drowned when the basement library of Rau’s IAS Study Circle coaching centre flooded following heavy localised rainfall, highlighting the dire state of the city’s civic infrastructure that buckles under bad weather and raises questions about how building safety regulations are enforced. The basement, originally designated for parking and storage, was being used as a library, contrary to the building plan.
The high court described the situation in the Capital as “terrible” and “chaotic”. Given the status of the infrastructure and functioning of authorities, it said it was no wonder that Delhi ended up facing one crisis after another. “It is no wonder that Delhi is passing from one crisis to another. One day there is the problem of drought, the other day it is flood,” the bench said.
Highlighting significant lapses in the investigation conducted by the Delhi Police into the drowning incident, the court said that officers took “missteps” by targeting the innocent while allowing the real culprits to escape.It called the failure of the Delhi Police to seize crucial MCD files related to the sanction plan for Rau’s IAS Campus and to interrogate the officials involved a “glaring omission”.
“The fact that the file (pertaining to the sanction plan of the building) has not been seized and statements of MCD officials have not been recorded, seems to be some glaring omission. At times brotherly love is fatal. There is no accountability. There needs to be some accountability. Some authorities have gone beyond the law. Administratively also, the system is very chaotic,” the court said.
Addressing deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) M Harsha Vardhan and the MCD commissioner Ashwani Kumar, who were present in court, the bench expressed its dissatisfaction with the investigation. “You have not even called a minion. You have not taken the file… This failure (to seize files regarding the grant of sanction) is also a case of neglect and this is a neglect, which is chargeable”.
After the incident, Delhi Police arrested several people, including an SUV driver who was driving through the waterlogged road outside, but no MCD official. The police argued that the SUV being driven by Manuj Kathuria created waves that caused the institute’s gate to break and flood the basement. A Delhi court granted bail to Kathuria on Thursday, saying that the charges against him were applied in “over-enthusiasm”.
Criticising the police for arresting Kathuria and blaming him for the incident, the high court said: “Mercifully you have not challaned the water for entering the basement, the way you have caught hold of the driver. Few missteps have been taken. What I have seen is happening is not good.”
The court was responding to a plea filed by advocate Rudra Vikram Singh, representing Kutumb, a social organisation, which sought a high-level committee to probe the incident. The petition highlighted the dire living conditions of students around coaching institutes, referring to them as a “living hell,” and accused the MCD, Delhi Development Authority (DDA), and the Delhi government of enabling illegal commercial activities in residential areas through corruption.
During the hearing on Friday, the MCD commissioner admitted that the stormwater drains in the area where the incident occurred were dysfunctional and had been encroached upon by residents and shopkeepers. He assured the court that the civic body would remove all unauthorised constructions and take action against negligent MCD officials. However, the court expressed its dismay over the civic bodies’ failure to adhere to its directions, stating that its orders were being treated like “water off a duck’s back”. The multiplicity of authorities in the capital, the court remarked, was only resulting in them passing the buck and blaming each other.
In response to the broader issues of infrastructure in the Capital, the bench constituted a committee headed by Delhi government’s chief secretary Naresh Kumar, along with the DDA vice-chairman, MCD Commissioner, and Delhi Police Commissioner, to review the city’s administrative, physical, and financial infrastructure and submit a report within four weeks.
“As there is a far more fundamental problem in the city of Delhi, physical, financial and administrative infrastructure are all outdated and not in accordance with the requirements of present day with the population hovering in excess of 3 crore [30 million] Delhi needs robust infrastructure with huge financial outlay.”
Earlier in the week, the court lambasted the Delhi government for failing to upgrade the city’s infrastructure due to what it termed a “freebies culture”. On Friday, the court said that the government’s “subsidy schemes” were putting a strain on the creaking infrastructure as more people were moving to the Capital.
“Due to various subsidy schemes, the migration in Delhi is only increasing and its population is also increasing...There is something fundamentally wrong and there is clear negligence on the part of the officials. They get salaries to ensure people have a good civic life. You have to ensure that the officials work. They are not working,” it lamented.
The court said the agencies in the city did not have the requisite funds to update the infrastructure.
“The financial health of civic agencies like MCD, if not precarious, is not healthy. This court would not be wrong in concluding that civic agencies in Delhi have no funds to carry out major infrastructure,” the high court said.
Following the tragedy, multiple inquiries were launched by various authorities, including the LG, the Delhi water minister and MCD. Delhi mayor Shelly Oberoi also ordered a crackdown on all coaching centres operating out of basements.