Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday for his silence on the death of Indore’s poor from contaminated water, while authorities initiated disciplinary action against civic officials over the tragedy.
While residents of Indore city’s Bhagirathpura locality say at least 15 people, including a six-month-old baby, died in an outbreak of diarrhoea and vomiting triggered by contaminated drinking water over the past nine days, the official death toll remains four.
However, Indore mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava on Friday said he had received information about 10 deaths from the diarrhoea outbreak in Bhagirathpura.
The family of baby Avyan blames his death on the tap water they had mixed with the combination of packaged milk and milk powder they fed him.
“Whenever the poor die, Modi ji, as always, remains silent,” Rahul said in a post on X, asking why the city administration in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh had ignored residents’ repeated complaints about dirty, foul-smelling water.
“How did sewage mix into the drinking water? Why wasn’t the supply shut off in time? When will action be taken against the responsible officers and leaders?” the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha asked.
Congress president Kharge, in a post on X, flagged how Indore had clinched the title of “cleanest city” for the eighth consecutive time in the central government’s Swachh Survekshan survey.
Kharge said the “BJP’s incompetence” was why “people here are desperate for clean water”.
Rahul slammed BJP leaders for making “arrogant statements” in connection with the controversy.
Local MLA and state minister Kailash Vijayvargiya is reported to have used a crude expression in response to a TV journalist’s question on the contaminated water.
“Every home is filled with mourning, the poor are helpless — and on top of that, BJP leaders are making arrogant statements. Those who lost their lives and livelihoods needed solace; the government offered arrogance,” Rahul said.
Chief medical and health officer Madhav Prasad Hasani had said on Thursday that laboratory test reports from a city medical college had confirmed that the drinking water in the locality had been contaminated because of a pipeline leak.
Family’s pain
In a narrow lane in Marathi Mohalla, Bhagirathpura, a pall has descended on afamily mourning six-month-old Avyan.
“We have not taken any compensation from the state government so far…. Willthe compensation bring him back to life?,” Avyan’s grandmother Krishna Sahu told PTI on Friday.
Avyan died on December 29, the family says. The government has announced an ex gratia of ₹2 lakh each to the families of the dead.
“He played in his mother’s lap. One day, he suddenly started suffering from diarrhoea and, on a doctor’s advice, we started with medicines at home,” a tearful Krishna said.
“His condition, however, worsened, and he was taken to a hospital, where doctors declared him dead.”
Anita Sen, a neighbour, said: “I have a month-old girl, a four-year-old and a 10-year-old in my house. The government should ensure that no mother is robbed of her child because of contaminated water.”
Action
Chief minister Mohan Yadav has ordered disciplinary action against senior Indore Municipal Corporation officials, including the immediate transfer of an additional commissioner from the city, over the outbreak.
Yadav said the government had instructed officials to draw up a time-bound programme to prevent recurrences anywhere in the state.
Over 1,400 people have suffered from vomiting and diarrhoea in Bhagirathpura since Christmas. The state health department said 272 hadbeen admitted to local hospitals till Thursday, of whom71 had been discharged. At least 32 were currently in ICUs, it added.