BHOPAL: The Bhagirathpura locality of Indore, India’s cleanest city, hit by a deadly diarrhoeal outbreak triggered by contaminated water supply, turned into a political battleground on Saturday, with leaders and supporters of the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress coming face to face.
A fact-finding team constituted by the state Congress to probe the deaths visited the affected locality to meet bereaved and ill families. However, their entry was blocked by BJP supporters, who raised slogans and waved black flags at the Congress delegation, which included former MLA and ex-minister Sajjan Singh Verma, and sitting MLAs Pratap Grewal and Mahesh Parmar.
As tensions escalated, Congress supporters raised slogans of “Ghanta Party Murdabad”, a reference to the recent alleged misconduct by local BJP MLA and cabinet minister Kailash Vijayvargiya with a senior television journalist, while BJP supporters shouted “Bahari log wapas jao” (outsiders go back). With both sides confronting each other, police intervened and escorted the Congress team safely out of the locality.
While the confrontation unfolded in Indore, Congress activists in the state capital Bhopal staged a protest outside the residence of Indore-1 MLA and state Urban Administration and Housing Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya.
In a related development, state Congress president Jitu Patwari, who hails from Indore, demanded Vijayvargiya’s resignation from the council of ministers and the registration of an FIR against Indore mayor and BJP leader Pushyamitra Bhargava.
“The loss of innocent lives in Indore due to contaminated water supply is the result of complete systemic failure. Merely removing the Indore municipal commissioner Dilip Yadav and suspending additional commissioner Rohit Sisonia and Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) superintending engineer Sanjeev Shrivastava is not enough. Responsibility for this failure also rests with the local MLA and urban administration minister Kailash Vijayvargiya, as well as the city mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava,” Patwari said.
Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar cited findings from a 2019 Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report to highlight long-standing issues with contaminated water supply in Indore and Bhopal.
“The report flagged serious deficiencies and exposed corruption in both cities. Project execution was found to be inadequate, yet no action was taken even after the report was released in 2019,” Singhar said.
According to the report, of 9.41 lakh households in Indore and Bhopal, only 5.30 lakh had tap connections at the time. The municipal corporations reportedly took between 22 and 182 days to address complaints related to water leakage. Between 2013 and 2018, as many as 4,481 water samples failed physical, chemical and bacteriological tests, but records did not show what corrective action was taken.
Singhar further stated that an independent investigation found 10 out of 54 water samples contaminated with dirt and faecal coliform. “This meant that 3.62 lakh people in Bhopal and 5.33 lakh people in Indore, nearly 8.95 lakh people in total, were supplied contaminated water. During this period, the health department recorded 5.45 lakh cases of waterborne diseases,” he said.