Will Youth Congress' Nine-Day March in Indore Demand Clean Water and Compensation?
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Indore, Jan 28 (NationPress) The youth faction of the Madhya Pradesh Congress has initiated a nine-day ‘Jan Adhikar Nyay Yatra’ starting Wednesday, advocating for clean drinking water and enhanced compensation for families of individuals who succumbed to consuming contaminated water in the Bhagirathpura locality of Indore.
The chairman of the State Youth Congress media cell, Abhigyan Shukla, noted that the march commenced at 11 a.m. from the Devi Ahilya statue in Rajwada and will traverse all Assembly segments within Indore district throughout the nine-day period.
“This nine-day protest is designed to focus on one Assembly constituency each day, covering a distance of 10 to 15 km on foot to communicate the main objectives of our march to the public. The Youth Congress aims to urge the administration to take stringent measures against those accountable for the fatalities linked to the water crisis in Bhagirathpura,” Shukla informed IANS.
He mentioned that Congress activists would seek action against state Urban Development Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya and Indore Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargav. The party will also demand Rs 1 crore compensation for every affected family and a judicial inquiry into the unfortunate incident.
The state government has announced a compensation package of Rs 2 lakh for 23 families. In contrast, the Congress has provided Rs 1.5 lakh each to the families of 24 victims during Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Bhagirathpura on January 17, when assistance cheques were distributed.
In a related development, during a session at the Indore Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday, the state government disclosed that a five-member death audit committee, comprising professors from MGM Medical College in Indore, had determined that 16 of the 23 deaths resulted from an epidemic induced by contaminated water.
Reports concerning five additional deaths are still pending.
A division bench of Justices Vijay Kumar Shukla and Alok Awasthi has established a commission led by a former High Court judge to investigate the water contamination in Bhagirathpura, asserting that the situation warrants examination by an independent and credible authority and “urgent judicial scrutiny.” The panel has been tasked with presenting an interim report within four weeks of the commencement of the proceedings.