The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has started action against illegal coaching centres and will set up a high-level committee to probe the flooding of the basement of a coaching institute which led to three civil services aspirants' deaths, an official said on Sunday.

A team of the civic body reached the Old Rajinder Nagar area to seal several illegally-run basements of coaching centres, a statement by the Delhi government said.

Around 13 such coaching centres were sealed during the action till late Sunday night.

These included IAS Gurukul, Chahal Academy, Plutus Academy, Sai Trading, IAS Setu, Topper's Academy, Dainik Samvad, Civils Daily IAS, Career Power, 99 Notes, Vidya Guru, Guidance IAS, and Easy for IAS.

"These coaching centres were found to be operating in basements in violation of rules and they were sealed on the spot and notices were pasted," the statement said.

The Rau's IAS Study Circle, where the incident took place on Saturday, has been sealed by the police.

The MCD had last year conducted a survey of such coaching centres after a massive fire broke out at an institute in Mukharjee Nagar, another coaching hub in north Delhi.

"To begin with, the survey will be used to identify those flouting norms," the official said.

Three civil services aspirants -- two females and a male -- died after a library housed in the basement of Rau's IAS centre got inundated in a heavy rain Saturday night and reportedly led to the failure of the single biometric entry and exit point. -- PTI