Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has formed a committee to frame guidelines for regulating coaching centres across the city and address issues being faced by students, said officials.
This comes following the death of three UPSC aspirants who drowned in a flooded basement of a coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar, prompting protests by hundreds of students.
According to officials, the L-G held a meeting with the senior management of over 20 private coaching institutes, senior officials from Delhi government departments concerned, the Delhi Development Authority Vice-Chairman, and student representatives Tuesday, following which he directed Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to form a committee.
The committee, headed by Kumar, will comprise five-six representatives from coaching institutes, students and officials from departments concerned.
According to the L-G office, the committee will comprehensively address issues related to regulation, exorbitant rents charged by landlords, fire clearances, desilting of drains and other immediate needs of the students to create a conducive educational environment fulfilling all parameters.
“The Chief Secretary shall take up the matter of formulation of guidelines/ regulatory framework for coaching institutions/tuition classes, in line with the guidelines framed by the Government of India, with the Minister Education, in the larger interest of students,” said officials.
Officials said that during the meeting, suggestions were mooted to create an education hub by relocating coaching institutes to areas like Narela, Rohini and other locations. Saxena then directed the Chief Secretary to prepare a long- and short-term action plan for gradually shifting coaching institutes to a well-planned area.
The DDA V-C was also directed to facilitate site visits for representatives of coaching institutions at identified locations in Narela, Rohini and others, said officials.
Officials said that following the L-G’s request, coaching institutes have agreed to offer fair compensation to the families of the three deceased students and offered to give a discount on fee for the current academic session to enrolled students who have suffered mental agony and disruption in studies.
The departments concerned have further been directed to immediately seal all the basement libraries and coaching classes immediately. “It was agreed that as a short-term measure, the institutes, especially the larger ones, would assist students by providing them spaces as reading rooms on other floors of their buildings,” said officials.
The L-G also directed to create a portal with Aadhaar-based log-in credentials of all coaching institutes in the city, and enrolled students, for a transparent database that would help the government in shaping the policy framework from time to time, said officials.
The MCD, on its part, will create a link on its portal to facilitate online applications for fire clearances for coaching institutions facing challenges due to ambiguity. The MCD Commissioner was directed to hold a meeting with the fire department to clarify the regulatory framework of fire clearances and building by-laws, said officials.
Further, the Delhi Police Commissioner was directed to conduct an immediate crackdown on exorbitant rents being charged in these areas and compulsory cash transactions for evasion of tax.
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