Indore water contamination: MP HC gives probe commission one month to submit detailed report

Indore, Mar 5 (PTI) The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday granted a month to a commission probing the water contamination tragedy in Indore to submit its comprehensive report.

The one-member commission headed by former HC judge Justice Sushil Kumar Gupta is probing the deaths linked to contaminated drinking water in the city's Bhagirathpura area.

A division bench of the HC comprising Justices Vijay Kumar Shukla and Alok Awasthi also directed the state government to provide the commission with all records it had sought, including post-mortem reports of the deceased, drinking water test reports and documents related to water pipelines.

Manish Yadav, counsel for one of the petitioners, told PTI the commission submitted its interim report before the High Court in a sealed cover.

He said the state government had not yet provided the commission with the complete records sought in the Bhagirathpura case, including post-mortem reports of the deceased, drinking water testing reports and documents related to water pipelines.

In light of the interim report, the court directed the state government to hand over the requested records to the commission at the earliest, Yadav said.

"The Indore bench of HC has granted the one-member inquiry commission one month to submit a detailed report in the Bhagirathpura case and fixed April 6 for the next hearing," he said.

Meanwhile, counsel for another petitioner, Ajay Bagadia, said a fresh application filed by his client in the HC alleged that employees responsible for maintaining a large overhead water tank of the municipal corporation had added potassium chloride tablets to the tank without any reason or permission.

The application alleged that excessive potassium chloride mixed in the tank connected to Bhagirathpura's water supply system made the drinking water harmful, adversely affecting the health of residents, he said.

Bagadia said the court may hear the application on April 6.

The outbreak of vomiting and diarrhoea linked to contaminated drinking water in Bhagirathpura began in late December last year.

Local residents and the Congress have claimed 36 people died in the outbreak. However, amid uproar in the state assembly on February 19, Health Minister Rajendra Shukla said 22 people died due to contaminated water in Bhagirathpura. PTI HWP LAL BNM