The Delhi government on Wednesday proposed a law to regulate coaching classes in the wake of protests by civil service aspirants demanding tangible changes in the enforcement of civic norms on the crowded streets where the institutes are located.

Protests by small informal groups have continued in the coaching hubs of Delhi since Saturday after three students drowned in the rainwater that had flooded the allegedly unauthorised basement library of Rau’s IAS Study Circle.

The BJP at the Centre, which also calls the shots in Delhi, and the AAP, in power in the national capital and the municipal corporation, have blamed each other for the circumstances that led to the deaths.

Delhi minister Atishi told reporters on Wednesday: “Just as private schools, private hospitals/ nursing homes are regulated by law, guidelines for their infrastructure are made, they are regularly inspected, they are given recognition, similarly the Delhi government, Arvind Kejriwal’s government, will bring a law to regulate all the coaching institutes running in Delhi, whether they are preparing for the IAS, IIT, NEET, CUET, NDA or any other examination.”

She added that the law would mandate regular inspections.

Atishi said: “We will form a committee today to bring this act. Besides the officers of the Delhi government, the committee will include students from coaching hubs of different parts of Delhi, be it Rajendra Nagar, Mukherjee Nagar or Laxmi Nagar.”

Atishi and Delhi mayor Shelly Oberoi on Wednesday met the protesting students at Old Rajinder Nagar, where the tragedy occurred. Earlier in the day, they met a group of aspirants from different parts of the capital at the Delhi Secretariat. Senior Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) officials met protesters at Old Rajinder Nagar and the police took some of them to meet MCD commissioner Ashwani Kumar.

The MCD has sealed the premises of 26 coaching centres and punished officials responsible for the clogged drainage system. A report by the agency pins the blame for the tragedy on Rau’s IAS Study Circle. Delhi Fire Services has found more than 500 such centres violating norms.

On Tuesday, lieutenant governor V.K. Saxena tried to meet students at the accident site but faced massive sloganeering. He later met a student delegation.

Saxena’s office on Wednesday issued directives to various departments, which included: “Chief secretary will head a committee comprising five-six representatives of coaching institutions, representatives of students and officials of departments concerned. This committee will comprehensively address all the issues related to regulation, exorbitant rental by landlords, fire clearances, desilting of drains and other immediate needs of the students to create a conducive educational environment fulfilling all parameters.

“The committee shall prepare long- and short-term action plans for gradually shifting the coaching institutes from various locations to a well-planned area.”

HC dig at police

“Have they lost it?” That was Delhi High Court’s poser on Wednesday as it pulled up Delhi police for its “strange probe” against an SUV driver arrested for his alleged role in the drowning of the three IAS aspirants.

The jailed SUV driver’s bail plea was, however, dismissed by a magisterial court later in the day.

Judicial magistrate Vinod Kumar rejected the bail plea of the five accused, including SUV driver Manuj Kathuria, who was termed a “masti-khor” (fun lover) by the police in their vehement opposition to his bail plea.

In the high court, a bench of acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said a “strange probe” was going on with the police taking action against a man who drove a car outside the coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar here but not acting against the MCD officials. “What is Delhi police doing? Have they lost it? What are its officials who are monitoring the probe doing? This is a cover-up or what?” the court said.