BHOPAL: The Indore district administration has released compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to 18 families which lost their family members due to a contaminated water-triggered diarrhoeal outbreak in Bhagirathpura recently.
Notably, the compensation to 18 bereaved families has been released at a time when the same district administration has so far maintained that the official death toll in the tragedy stands at seven.
While nine of the deceased whose families have been compensated are women (aged between 32 to 75 years), eight others are men who are aged between 50 and 75 years, while the youngest to die was six-month-old Avyan Sahu.
The money has been released through cheques via Red Cross to the bereaved families. While cheques have been handed over to 15 families, the same compensation amount is being sent to three families via the RTGS route.
"We don’t want to go into numbers, each death is painful to us. It’s the autopsy report of the deceased, based on which the local administration decides the official figures. But when it came to compensation, we’ve decided to help all those families who lost their members during the concerned period in that locality," Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav said.
According to the Indore district collector Shivam Verma, "Based on the analysis of each death by a panel of senior doctors, we’re updating the official toll. But acting as per the instructions, we’re releasing the compensation sum to each family which has lost their family members in that area during that period. We’ve released compensation to 18 families so far, the sum is being sent to some families through the RTGS route."
Meanwhile, as per local reports in Indore, two more deaths have happened in Bhagirath area, bringing the toll to 20. The two more deceased include Harkunwar Bai (70) and a retired cop Om Prakash Sharma.
Right since the deaths started happening in Bhagirathpura locality, there have been conflicts in the official death toll and local reports, as well as claims by the city’s mayor, Pushyamitra Bhargava, local BJP corporator Kamel Baghela and the local MLA and state’s urban administration and housing minister Kailash Vijayvargiya.
The opposition Congress has been continuously alleging that the actual death toll was much more than what was being reported officially.
As per the latest official statement issued by the Indore district chief medical and health officer (CMHO), Dr Madhav Hassani, currently 56 patients are admitted at various hospitals in Indore, out of which nine are in the ICU.