- Families in Indore grieve as water contamination causes deaths and hospitalisations
- Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya evades responsibility, later regrets harsh words to NDTV reporter
- At least 8 deaths and 162 hospitalised reported in Bhagirathpura due to tap water
As families in Madhya Pradesh are grieving over the deaths due to Indore's water contamination, NDTV asked Minister and local MLA Kailash Vijayvargiya why responsibility was being discussed only for junior officials and not for senior leaders. His response was blunt: "Oh, leave it, don't ask useless questions."
NDTV asked whether, as the Urban Administration Minister and the area's legislator, responsibility also lay with him and with Water Resources Minister Tulsi Silawat - who was seated next to the Chief Minister and why action was being discussed only against junior staff and not against ministers or senior officials. It was also pointed out that families of hospitalised patients had not yet received reimbursement for medical expenses. When the NDTV reporter insisted that families were struggling with medical bills and no reimbursements had come, the minister lost his temper and used abusive language.
A short while later, he posted a message on X expressing regret over his words.
"My team and I have been continuously working to improve the situation in the affected area without sleep for the past two days. My people are suffering from contaminated water, and some have left us; in this state of deep sorrow, my words came out wrong in response to a media question. For this, I express my regret. But until my people are completely safe and healthy, I will not sit quietly," he said.
Many Opposition leaders have hit out at Vijayvargiya, with Madhya Pradesh Congress President Jitendra Patwari demanding his resignation.
"The number of deaths from drinking poisonous water in Indore has risen from 8 to 10, but the rudeness, shamelessness, and arrogance of BJP leaders remain unchanged. And when questions are raised about responsibility for this poisonous water, the minister is using abusive words against the journalist. Mohan Yadav, What kind of spectacle is your government and your minister creating? The victims are neither getting free treatment nor sympathy, and on top of that, your arrogant minister is using abusive words. If there is even a shred of shame left, then take the immediate resignation from such rude ministers on moral grounds," he said.
The Congress party, in a post on X, wrote: "In Madhya Pradesh, people are dying from drinking contaminated water and when questions are raised, BJP government ministers are using thuggish language."
In Bhagirathpura, a densely populated locality of India's "cleanest city," at least eight to 10 people have died after consuming contaminated tap water, according to families. Another 162 people are hospitalised. Yet even the official death count remains unclear.
While numbers vary, grief does not.
Seventy-year-old Nandlal Pal died after consuming contaminated water. His son said local leaders asked him to go and meet the MLA instead of coming to his home. Another resident, Sanjay Yadav, who lost his mother, said, "In our culture, when someone dies, people come to the house to offer condolences. I cannot leave my home for three days. How can I go running to meet anyone?" He said he had spent over Rs 40,000 on his mother's treatment, contradicting the administration's claims that treatment was free.
Seema Prajapati's son Arun said no alternative drinking water has been arranged. "We are walking far to fetch borewell water because we are afraid to drink from the taps," he said.
Ironically, in 2021, Indore was declared India's first Water Plus city, celebrated for managing wastewater, preventing untreated sewage from entering rivers, and reusing treated water for irrigation. Four years later, the same city, seven times in a row, ranked India's cleanest, is now in the news for deaths caused by suspected contaminated drinking water.
What makes the crisis politically explosive is its location. Bhagirathpura falls within the constituency of the state's Urban Administration and Housing Minister himself, exposing the collapse of civic services in a city that prides itself on governance and cleanliness.
Chief Minister Mohan Yadav visited Indore, met patients, and chaired a review meeting, promising that such a tragedy would not be repeated and that action would follow the investigation report. A three-member probe panel has been formed, and compensation of Rs 2 lakh for the families of the victims has been announced. Action has been initiated against three PHE officials - two suspended, and one terminated.
But for families who have lost loved ones, fallen into debt, and now fear their own water supply, official announcements feel distant.
