NEW DELHI, Jan. 8 -- The Congress on Thursday asked the central and the Madhya Pradesh governments to clarify whether the deaths in Indore, caused by consumption of contaminated water, were due to cholera.
The party said the deaths were the result of criminal negligence and a collective failure of the "triple-engine governments" at the Centre, in the state and at the Indore Municipal Corporation.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC office here, party spokesperson and chairman of the media and publicity department Pawan Khera said the "ugly, brutal and utterly callous face of the BJP government" had been exposed in Indore, where 18 innocent lives, including that of a six-month-old infant, were lost due to gross negligence, incompetence and blatant apathy.
He said over 40,000 people had been affected and many were still fighting for their lives in intensive care units. He pointed out that this was the same Indore that had clinched the 'Cleanest City' title for the eighth consecutive time in the Centre's Swachh Survekshan survey.
Khera said the tragedy exposed decades of systemic failure. Despite flagship programmes such as the Jal Jeevan Mission and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, he said, the BJP government had repeatedly failed to ensure clean
drinking water.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.