Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari sharply criticised the Madhya Pradesh government and demanded the immediate resignation of "ill-mannered ministers" on moral grounds.
INDORE — Madhya Pradesh Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya had to eat a humble pie after his comments on fixing accountability over the deaths due to drinking contaminated water in Indore went viral.
Vijayvargiya, the local MLA, drew the wrath of netizens and rights activists alike after he misbehaved with a journalist on being questioned over the deaths and used filthy and gutter language. As the video of the incident went viral, Vijayvargiya had to tender an apology.
As families grieved over the deaths, an NDTV journalist asked Vijayvargiya why responsibility was being discussed only for junior officials and not for senior leaders. The minister’s 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 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 in Hindi 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.
Court Orders Free Treatment
The Indore Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has taken stringent action in response to a public health crisis in the city’s Bhagirathpura area.
Expressing strong displeasure over negligence that endangered citizens’ lives, a vacation bench comprising Justices Rajesh Kumar Gupta and Justice B P Sharma directed the state government to provide completely free medical treatment to all affected patients.
The court stressed that no laxity in matters concerning public health would be tolerated.
The intervention followed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Indore High Court Bar Association president Ritesh Inani, who highlighted the alleged failure of the administration to ensure clean and potable water in a major city like Indore, calling it a fundamental civic responsibility.
Congress demands minister’s resignation
As the death toll from consuming contaminated municipal water in Indore’s Bhagirathpura area has claimed several lives, Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari sharply criticised the Madhya Pradesh government and demanded the immediate resignation of “ill-mannered ministers” on moral grounds.
Patwari alleged that the victims were receiving neither free treatment nor sympathy, while ministers “displayed arrogance and misbehaved with journalists”.
Social media users echoed the anger, amplifying calls for accountability, as over 2,000 residents were affected by severe vomiting and diarrhoea.
The crisis, linked to a leakage in the main Narmada water supply pipeline – exacerbated by a toilet constructed overhead – has exposed serious administrative lapses in India’s repeatedly awarded “cleanest city.”
