Karol Bagh and Old Rajender Nagar saw large-scale protests on Sunday, with students holding placards and chanting slogans for justice and accountability from authorities. Tensions flared between police and protesters multiple times, prompting the deployment of the Rapid Action Force in riot gear.
Initially a sit-in, the protest escalated by noon, with over 400 students blocking streets. The main road near the metro station was obstructed, leading police to use mild force to disperse the crowd. Several students were taken away in buses but were released later.
Protesters included UPSC aspirants, alumni of Rau’s IAS Study Circle, and others facing local infrastructure issues. Their demands included desilting and cleaning sewage lines. Slogans of “we want justice” and placards saying “we want investigation,” “ensure safety,” and “long live students’ unity” were prevalent. Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal and Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav were not allowed to join the protest to avoid politicization.
Prabhakar Kumar (20), a student at Vision IAS coaching institute, said, “Institutes are making more and more libraries in basements despite Rajender Nagar being a flood-prone area. Basements should only be used for vehicle parking.” Guru Muhilan (25), from IAS Study Circle, added that around 20 students were usually present in the institute’s basement library, which is also used for mock tests. “It is very traumatizing for us to see this happening in the institute we go to every day,” he said.
Saumitra Tiwari, a civil services aspirant, and Rajender Nagar resident, stated, “Students could have been rescued earlier. Water getting inside Rau’s library was a usual thing. Both the staff and students treated it like a normal rainy day and were ignorant.”
Protesting students told TOI that the incident was not just due to a natural calamity but a consequence of systemic infrastructure failures in the area. Swatantra, another UPSC aspirant, said, “They thought the gates and some plastic sheets would be enough to keep the water from coming inside. But risking students’ lives based on such makeshift solutions is very problematic. Authorities must launch an investigation into this.”
DCP (Central) M Harshavardhan stated, “On Sunday, around 2.30 pm, some students blocked both carriageways of Pusa Road near Karol Bagh metro station, an arterial road with many hospitals nearby. They were repeatedly requested not to block the main road by police and the district magistrate (central). Since they refused to clear the main road even after an hour, they were removed considering the massive public inconvenience and the presence of hospitals nearby.”
Another protest took place outside Mayor Shelly Oberoi’s house, where police clashed with ABVP protesters.
