Defaced, Indore’s ‘cleanest’ tag drowning? Officials point ‘dirty’ fingers at each other; top officials face action

INDORE: Who’s dirty water is it? Four days after a diarrhoea outbreak in Bhagirathpura area of Indore left 10 people dead, elected representatives and officials of Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) were at loggerheads fixing responsibility even as criticism mounted over serious lapses in the BJP-led civic body that led to the tragedy.

While a number of corporators, and the city mayor, alleged that people’s complaints and instructions issued by them were often ignored by officials, the latter said coordination between the two was never an issue.

Sources said battle lines were drawn during a high-level meeting chaired by additional chief secretary Sanjay Dubey, in charge of urban development, in Indore on Thursday.

BJP corporators grew more vociferous on Friday when chief minister Mohan Yadav intervened and the state govt issued a showcause notice to IMC commissioner Dileep Kumar Yadav and shunted out additional commissioner Rohit Sisoniya.

“Instructions issued on various works related to water and sewerage were not followed properly. Strict action should be taken against those responsible,” mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava told newspersons on Friday.

Sources said resentment was visible at Thursday’s closed-door meeting when BJP corporator Abhishek Sharma, in charge of water works, and former MLA Mahendra Hardia also alleged apathy by officials.

On Friday, corporator of ward number 11 Kamal Waghela said, “Officers do not carry out our work quickly. It’s been almost a week since the contamination began yet the reason for this has not been ascertained conclusively.” IMC commissioner denied any possibility of negligence.

In a late night development, CM Yadav removed IMC commissioner Dileep Kumar Yadav (who was given a show cause notice earlier) and suspended additional commissioner Rohit Sisoniya, and PHE engineer in-charge Sanjeev Srivastava. Sisoniya was earlier removed from the post but was not given any posting.