No politics over students' death at coaching centre, must fix responsibility: Dharmendra Pradhan

NEW DELHI: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday said coaching institutes have to follow the rules and regulations and asserted that there should be no politics over the death of three UPSC aspirants due to flooding at an institute here. Taking part in a short debate in the Rajya Sabha over the death of three students at a UPSC coaching centre in Delhi's Old Rajinder Nagar on July 27, the minister termed the incident unfortunate.

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.

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"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 government to move away from its responsibilities, the Union education minister said in the Rajya Sabha. During the discussion, some Rajya Sabha members raised questions on the education system of the country. To this, Pradhan replied: "There is pseudo-intellectualism in the mind of some people." 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.