Drishti IAS may relocate to Rohini or Narela amid students protests

NEW DELHI: Controversy-hit Drishti IAS coaching academy, which is facing the heat over eight illegal basement rooms in Delhi’s prime Mukherjee Nagar is likely to relocate its premises to either Rohini or Narela, the students of the founder Vikas Divyakriti have said.

“We have been told after the sealing drive last week following the tragic deaths of three students in the basement at Rau’s IAS that the company is shifting its coaching premises to north-west Delhi in Rohini or Narela,” said Aditi, a student outside Drishti IAS’s building in Nehru Vihar in Mukherjee Nagar.

Large-scale protests erupted against Divyakirti, a former IAS who had quit his services but is also known for his flamboyance and wide social media razzmatazz he enjoys as a cult,  due to the pressing concerns on the safety of nearly 4,000-plus students who are taught at the crumbling building that became an epicentre of IAS aspirants for the last decade or so.

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Agitated students, while speaking to The New Indian, residing in the Nehru Vihar area described the harsh conditions they are enduring.

“Due to the high demand and limited supply of paying guest accommodations, landlords are charging exorbitant rents from students. Students’ lives hold little value, they are compelled to live in such cramped and dilapidated conditions, with narrow, stinky lanes,” said Veena Gautam, another student.

Drishti IAS’s neighbours told The New Indian that a meeting took place between the student union, local library owners, and the Delhi Police on July 31 to seek consensus on opening of those libraries that had not been sealed.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss reopening them ahead of the scheduled UPSC mains exam, likely in September this year.

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The New Indian has also accessed the copy of a letter that was sent to the local SHO by a dozen library owners.

“Those who are giving the main examination have requested the opening of libraries for a bright future. If any advisor is conveyed, please inform us,” the letter says.

The tragedy at Rau’s IAS Academic Circle served as a wake-up call for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the Delhi administration.

As a result, more than 13 coaching centres that were operating classes and libraries in their basements were sealed.

Before the Rau Tragedy, on July 22, a UPSC aspirant tragically lost his life while attempting to cross a waterlogged street. The incident occurred when the individual grabbed an iron gate near exposed wires for balance and was electrocuted. Earlier, on June 29, two boys allegedly drowned near the rainwater-flooded Siraspur underpass in northwest Delhi’s Samaypur Badli area.

 

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