Indore contaminated water crisis: Congress seeks minister’s resignation

As grief and anger ripple through Indore following deaths linked to contaminated municipal water in the city’s Bhagirathpura area, the political temperature in Madhya Pradesh has soared. Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari launched a blistering attack on the state government, demanding the immediate resignation of what he termed “ill-mannered ministers” on moral grounds.

Patwari alleged that families of the victims were left without free medical treatment or even basic sympathy, while ministers, instead of showing compassion, “displayed arrogance and misbehaved with journalists”. Public fury has echoed across social media, where calls for accountability have grown louder as more than 2,000 residents were struck by severe vomiting and diarrhoea.

The crisis — traced to a leak in the main Narmada water supply pipeline, worsened by a toilet constructed above it — has laid bare serious administrative lapses in Indore, a city often celebrated as India’s “cleanest”. The unfolding tragedy has punctured that image, replacing civic pride with public outrage.

At the centre of the storm is Madhya Pradesh urban development minister and local MLA Kailash Vijayvargiya, whose constituency includes the affected locality. He faced intense backlash after losing his temper during a media interaction on Wednesday. When questioned by an NDTV journalist about accountability beyond junior officials and the absence of free treatment for victims, Vijayvargiya reportedly snapped, brushing off the query as “useless” and using offensive language on camera. The clip quickly went viral, drawing sharp condemnation for breaching what many described as the “limits of decency”.

Hours later, the minister sought to douse the flames by issuing an apology on X. Expressing regret, he said he and his team had been working without sleep for two days to address the crisis, and that his words had been misplaced amid grief over the suffering and loss of lives.

The state government has since moved to contain the damage, dismissing one official, suspending two others, and constituting a three-member inquiry panel. Chief minister Mohan Yadav visited hospitals on Wednesday, assured strict action based on the probe’s findings, and announced a series of measures — including free treatment for all affected patients, tanker water supply, and the creation of dedicated medical wards.

Judicial scrutiny has also kicked in. On 31 December, the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court took suo motu cognisance through a Public Interest Litigation, directing state authorities and the Indore Municipal Corporation to ensure the immediate supply of clean drinking water, provide completely free medical care to victims, and submit a detailed status report by 2 January. The matter is scheduled for further hearing on that date.

Yet, despite apologies, administrative action and court intervention, public anger and opposition criticism show little sign of ebbing. Demands are intensifying for a thorough investigation into the contamination and a fixing of responsibility that goes beyond scapegoats, as Indore grapples with one of its most unsettling civic crises in recent years.

With IANS inputs