The Madhya Pradesh government on Friday removed the Indore municipal commissioner and suspended two other officials following the death of at least five people due to water contamination.
In a post on X, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav stated that his government will not tolerate any laxity that might have led to the tragedy, and strict action is being taken.
While municipal commissioner Dilip Kumar Yadav was removed, additional municipal commissioner Rohit Sissoniya and the in-charge superintendent engineer of the Public Health Engineering department, Sanjeev Shrivastava, have been placed under suspension.
Meanwhile, the state government informed the high court that the outbreak of diarrheal illness due to contaminated water supply is now under effective control, with continuous, minute-to-minute monitoring in place to prevent any resurgence.
In a 40-page status report submitted in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Ritesh Inani, the government claimed that a directive had been issued on December 30, mandating that all private hospitals provide completely free treatment, including diagnostics and medicines, to all affected persons.
Chief Minister Yadav held a review meeting on Friday and announced an ex gratia assistance of Rs 2,00,000 to the families of the deceased as an immediate supportive measure.
According to Indore District Collector Shivam Verma, at least 210 people are currently receiving treatment at various hospitals after consuming contaminated water.
“We have constituted a team of senior doctors who will analyse death figures, which were received from other sources, such as public representatives or the media, and we will update our official death figure report,” he told ANI.