Bhopal, Jan 3 Congress on Saturday continued its attack on the Madhya Pradesh government over the Indore water contamination crisis that claimed several lives, with grand old party leader Digvijaya Singh blaming the city Mayor for the incident.
Singh, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh, alleged that the Indore Mayor and a local BJP leader were responsible for the tragic incident.
Expressing grief over the death of several people, he demanded that all responsible people, including senior officials, Mayor and other local representatives, should be held responsible and punished.
"The Indore incident is highly condemnable. Strict action should be taken against all those involved. The manner in which Indore Mayor and local representatives behaved there is extremely deplorable," Singh said during an interaction with the media in Bhopal on Saturday.
Earlier on Friday, another senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP, Vivek Tankha accused the Madhya Pradesh government of "hiding the truth" behind the horrific incident that killed several people in Indore.
Cutting across party lines, political leaders were questioning the Madhya Pradesh government after the number of people affected by diarrhoea continued to grow in Indore's Bhagirathpura area for the past few days.
For instance, veteran BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti on Friday launched a sharp attack on Chief Minister Mohan, saying that "its testing time" for him.
Bharti had described the deadly incident as a "shame" for the state and said it was a crucial test of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav’s leadership.
In a series of social media posts, the former Union Minister for Water Resources said the deaths caused by polluted water had "disgraced our state, our government and our entire system."
Meanwhile, Indore district administration on Saturday started a survey to check the water quality being supplied through tankers in Indore's Bhagirathpura area where contaminated water killed several people in the past week, and over 200 were still admitted in multiple hospitals in the city.
Along with an extensive checking of water quality, teams of district administration were also making residents of the Bhagirathpura area aware about the use of safe drinking water to ensure the safety of people, especially children and senior citizens, who were the most affected by contaminated water.
The awareness campaign and inspection led by Indore District Collector Shivam Verma began early morning on Saturday, and it will continue till the evening. During the door-to-door visit, officials are also inspecting water stored in underground and rooftop tanks built in the area.
Speaking to IANS, Collector Shivam Verma said that multiple teams of staff members have been deployed to conduct door-to-door inspections in Bhagirathpura.
A close monitoring is being carried out at the spot where a large number of people were affected.
"Our team is continuously conducting investigations. Wherever cases of food poisoning have been reported and patients have tested positive, we have instructed all departments to carry out thorough inspections in the surrounding areas. Along with this, our water supply lines are also being checked," Collector Verma told IANS.
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