No politics over IAS aspirants' death, states must supervise coaching centres' functioning: Pradhan

NEW DELHI: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday said there are clear guidelines for running coaching centres and it is the duty of the state governments to supervise their functioning.

Taking part in a short debate in the Rajya Sabha over the death of three students due to flooding of the basement of a UPSC coaching centre in Delhi's Old Rajinder Nagar following heavy rains on July 27, he termed the incident unfortunate and said there should be no politics over it.

Nothing would compensate for the loss the bereaved families have suffered, Pradhan said.

"We must fix responsibility so that such incidents do not recur," he said, adding, "There should be no politics... Negligence has happened and someone has to take responsibility so that a solution can be found."

Stressing that education is in the concurrent list and is the responsibility of the Centre as well as the state, Pradhan said the coaching centres have responsibilities too.

The Government of India sent advisories related to coaching centres to the states and Union Territories in 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2024, the Union education minister said.

The advisories suggest "registration of coaching centre and minimum standards for that, what kind of safeguards it should take for students and continuous monitoring, including levying penalty if someone goes against it"

Some states such as Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Manipur have their own regulations.

"Considering this, the government in January 2024 sent an advisory to states. That is already in public. Had the state governments followed it, this unfortunate incident would not have happened," Pradhan said while asserting that it is the states' duty to implement it.

It would not be appropriate for the state governments to move away from their responsibilities, he said in the Rajya Sabha.

Pradhan said that the government is ready for any kind of discussion on the education system. "We don't have anything to hide," he asserted.

Some people think they are experts in constitutional matters, he said, adding the Supreme Court has already given its order on NEET and the government is ready to discuss the issue in detail in the Upper House.

Slamming the UPA government for not implementing the Public Examination Malpractices Bill, 2010, Pradhan said the present government has brought the law into force.

Cited incidents of paper leaks across states, the Union education minister told the House that "we all need to move forward" and the "coaching centres have to follow the rules."

"There is clarity on the law governing the coaching centres. States will have to follow it, they will have to take responsibility," Pradhan said.

He also sought constructive suggestions from the members regarding the issues. "This government is transparent and focused on taking the country to greater heights," he added.

Cutting across party lines, the members demanded strict action against erring government officials and even representatives for allowing illegal coaching centres to flourish.

Describing the coaching industry as "mafia", CPI member Sandosh Kumar P noted that there is a mismatch in the quality of education being imparted in schools, colleges and coaching centres.

This mismatch is leading to the mushrooming of coaching centres, he claimed and sought a white paper on the state of coaching centres across the country.

Harish Beeran of the IUML sought setting up a regulator to oversee the functioning of coaching centres.

While BJP MP Ram Chander Jangra sought concrete measures so that incidents like the Old Rajinder Nagar one did not recur anywhere in the country, the AAP's Swati Maliwal blamed rampant corruption for the spread of coaching centres and sought strict police action against government officials and public representatives of the area.

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

Asserting that the country doesn't need a parallel education system, NCP MP Fauzia Khan said It is a matter of introspection that coaching classes have become an alternative to schools and colleges.

Mahua Maji of the JMM said private and public schools need to have the same standard of education while Samajwadi party MP Jaya Bachchan asked political parties to rise above petty politics over such matters.

Ramji of BSP batted for tough actions by the Centre and state governments to prevent the recurrence of such incidents and YSRCP MP V Vijay Sai Reddy said coaching centres would not be required if the education standard was better in the country.

There is a need to ban coaching centres or bring in a regulator for maintaining the standard of education, he said while demanding that accountability be fixed in the coaching centre flooding incident in Delhi that killed three students and strict action be taken against erring officials.

Manoj Jha of the RJD described the death of the IAS aspirants as "murder" and alleged that the coaching institutes have become so powerful that they now claim the ability to rig any exam.

"This is become a country of accidents. This issue has become BJP versus AAP. Even death is dividing us," he said.

Surender Singh Nagar of BJP said people responsible for the death of students at the coaching centre should be punished and sought to know why no action has been taken by the Delhi government against erring officials.

Senior police officials said the coaching centre's basement got flooded mainly because the civic authority failed to clear the roadside drain before the onset of Monsoon and there was no provision for draining out water at the basement where a library was running illegally.

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