At least 142 people remain hospitalised, including 11 in intensive care units, amid a diarrhoea outbreak caused by contaminated drinking water in Indore, where six deaths have been reported, officials said on Sunday.
The outbreak’s epicentre is Bhagirathpura, where health teams screened 9,416 people across 2,354 households and detected 20 fresh cases during the ongoing survey, officials said.
So far, 398 patients have been admitted to hospitals following the outbreak, of whom 256 have been discharged after recovery.
Officials said the situation is now under control, even as monitoring and medical surveillance continue in the affected localities.
Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr Madhav Prasad Haasani said a team from the Kolkata-based National Institute for Research in Bacterial Infections (NIRBI) has arrived in Indore to investigate the cause of the health crisis.
He said experts from NIRBI, which is affiliated with the Indian Council of Medical Research, are providing technical support to the health department to contain the outbreak.
The administration has confirmed six deaths so far. Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava had put the death toll at ten, whereas locals claimed that 16 people, including a six-month-old child, died due to the diarrhoea outbreak.
Amid the outrage over deaths, the Congress staged bell-ringing protests across Madhya Pradesh demanding the resignation of senior Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya over the usage of the word "ghanta" while responding to reporters' questions about the developments in Indore.
Vijayvargiya sparked a row on the night of December 31 when he responded with the expression “ghanta” to a question by reporters on camera when asked about the water contamination crisis.
The Congress demanded a judicial inquiry and sacking of Vijayvargiya, who holds the Urban Development and Housing portfolios, since Bhagirathpura is part of his Indore-1 assembly constituency.
State Congress president Jitu Patwari threatened to launch an agitation on January 11 if the party's demands for rectification measures were not met.
He demanded registration of a culpable homicide case against Indore Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava and concerned civic officials.
"Sixteen persons have died. These deaths are the murder of the mandate that people gave to the BJP in the previous elections. There must be a judicial probe into the deaths caused by contaminated drinking water, and those guilty should be given strict punishment," Patwari told reporters.
He claimed residents of Bhagirathpura had been complaining for the past eight months that contaminated water was coming from municipal tap connections, but no action was taken.
"They are also saying water currently being supplied through municipal tankers in Bhagirathpura is also contaminated," Patwari alleged.
Meanwhile, a sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) in neighbouring Dewas was suspended on Sunday for allegedly referring to a minister's (read Vijayvargiya) controversial remark and Congress's allegations in an official order amid the Indore water contamination crisis, officials said.
Ujjain division revenue commissioner Ashish Singh suspended the SDM on charges of serious negligence, indifference, and irregularities in the discharge of official duties.
The officials said the SDM had issued a government order on Saturday to deploy subordinate revenue officers to maintain law and order in view of a Congress protest held in Dewas.
"The wording of a portion of the Congress memorandum was copied verbatim in the SDM’s order issued for official purposes. This amounts to serious negligence," an official told PTI.
The Congress memorandum had targeted the BJP government and stated that Vijayvargiya’s use of the objectionable word reflected “inhumanity and authoritarianism.
The word "Ghanta" has different shades of meaning, but in common parlance, its usage conveys nonsense.
Renowned water conservationist Rajendra Singh termed the deaths due to contaminated drinking water a "system-created disaster," alleging that deep-rooted corruption is to blame for the tragedy.
The Magsaysay Award winner, popularly known as the "Waterman of India," expressed alarm that such a crisis could unfold in Indore, which has been consistently ranked as India's cleanest city.
"If such a tragedy can occur in the country's cleanest city, it shows how serious the condition of drinking water supply systems must be in other cities," Singh told PTI.
Government officials admitted the sewage overflow from the toilet spilled over into the water mains, causing the outbreak of severe episodes of vomiting and diarrhea.
"Indore's contaminated drinking water crisis is a system-created disaster. To save money, contractors lay drinking water pipelines in close proximity to drainage lines," Singh claimed.
He alleged "corruption” has ruined the entire system. The Indore tragedy is the direct result of this corrupt system, he added.
“The year-on-year decline in groundwater levels in Indore is the most worrying. I visited Indore for the first time in 1992. Even then, I had asked how long the city would depend on water from the Narmada river?" Singh said.
A large amount of money is lost to corruption in the project to bring Narmada water to Indore from 80 kilometres away, the water conservationist charged.
Indore depends on the Narmada River for its water needs. Through pipelines laid by the municipal corporation, water from the Narmada river is brought to Indore from Jalud in neighbouring Khargone district, located 80 km away, and supplied to households on alternate days.
According to civic officials, around Rs 25 crore is spent every month from the municipal corporation's treasury only on electricity bills for this project.
The huge expenditure involved in the project can also be gauged from statements made by Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava.
During a seminar in the city on June 27, 2024, Bhargava had said, "Ever since I became mayor, I have been joking that Indore is one of the richest cities in Asia because we drink water that costs Rs 21 per kilolitre and also let it flow wastefully. We are not drinking water, but ghee.
