Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan says there will be no politics over death of IAS aspirants

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday said there are clear guidelines for running coaching centres and it is the responsibility of the state government to supervise their functioning.

Taking part in a brief debate in Rajya Sabha on the death of three students due to flooding in the basement of a UPSC coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar area of ​​Delhi following heavy rains on July 27, he called the incident unfortunate and said politics should not be brought into the matter.

Nothing can compensate for the loss suffered by the grieving families, Pradhan said.

“We need to establish accountability so that such incidents do not happen again,” he said, adding: “There should be no politics… Negligence has occurred and someone needs to take responsibility so that a solution can be found.”

Pradhan emphasised that education is on the concurrent list and is the responsibility of both the Centre and the state. He also added that training centres also have responsibilities.

The Indian government has sent warnings to states and union territories regarding coaching centres for 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2024, the education minister said.

The recommendations suggest “registration of the training centre and minimum standards in this regard, the types of safeguards it should provide to students, as well as continuous monitoring, including imposing penalties if anyone breaches the regulations.”

Some states like Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Manipur have their own laws.

“Keeping this in mind, the government had sent an alert to the states in January 2024. It is already public. If the state governments had complied with it, this unfortunate incident would not have taken place,” Pradhan said, asserting that it was the responsibility of the states to implement it.

He stated in the Rajya Sabha that it would not be appropriate for the state government to shirk its duties.

Pradhan said the government was ready for any discussion on the education system. “We have nothing to hide,” he assured.

Some consider themselves experts in constitutional matters, he added. The Supreme Court has already given its ruling on the NEET exam and the government is ready to discuss the issue in detail in the Upper House.

Criticising the UPA government for not implementing the Public Examinations Malpractice Act, 2010, Pradhan said the current government has implemented the law.

Citing incidents of document leaks across states, the Union Education Minister told the House that “we all have to move forward” and “coaching institutes have to follow the rules”.

“The law governing coaching centres is clear. States will have to comply with it, they will have to take responsibility,” Pradhan said.

He also asked members to provide constructive suggestions on these issues. “This government is transparent and focused on taking the country to greater heights,” he added.

Party members, crossing party lines, demanded tough action against dishonest government officials and even representatives who allow illegal training centers to develop.

Describing the coaching industry as a “mafia”, Sandosh Kumar P, member of CPI, observed that there is a discrepancy in the quality of education imparted in schools, colleges and coaching centres.

He argued that this discrepancy was leading to a surge in the number of training centres and demanded a white paper on the status of training centres across the country.

Harish Beeran of IUML demanded the setting up of a regulatory body to oversee the functioning of training centres.

While BJP MP Ram Chander Jangra demanded concrete measures to ensure that incidents like the one in Old Rajinder Nagar do not repeat themselves anywhere in the country, AAP’s Swati Maliwal blamed rampant corruption for the development of training centres and demanded strict action by the police against government officials and civil society representatives in the area.

M Thambidurai of the AIADMK demanded a ban on coaching centres, while Priyanka Chaturvedi of the Shiv Sena (UBT) demanded a serious discussion on the issue.

NCP MP Fauzia Khan said the country does not need a parallel education system and said there is a need to consider whether tutoring has become an alternative to schools and colleges.

JMM’s Mahua Maji said private and public schools must provide the same standard of education, while Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan appealed to political parties to rise above petty politics on such issues.

BSP’s Ramji appealed to the central and state governments to take strict action to prevent recurrence of such incidents, while YSRCP MP V Vijay Sai Reddy said there would be no need for coaching centres if the standard of education in the country was better.

He added that it is necessary to ban the operation of educational and training centres or set up a body to monitor the maintenance of educational standards. He demanded that responsibility for the flooding incident at the educational and training centre in Delhi, in which three students died, be established, and that strict action be taken against dishonest officials.

RJD’s Manoj Jha called the deaths of IAS aspirants “murder” and alleged that coaching institutes have become so powerful that they now claim they can rig any exam.

“It has become a land of accidents. This issue has become BJP versus AAP. Even death divides us,” he said.

BJP’s Surender Singh Nagar said those responsible for the death of students at the coaching centre should be punished and wants to know why the Delhi authorities have not taken any action against the rogue officials.

Senior police officials said the basement of the training centre was flooded mainly because the civic authorities failed to clear a roadside drain before the monsoon season and had no means of draining water from the basement where the library was operating illegally.

The IAS aspirants who died in the incident were Shreya Yadav (25) from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, Tanya Soni (25) from Telangana and Nevin Delvin (24) from Ernakulam in Kerala.