Indore Collector, Mayor Attend RSS Meet Amid Water Contamination Deaths; Congress Criticises
New Delhi: Days after contaminated drinking water killed at least 10 persons in Indore, a political row has now erupted as the city’s collector Shivam Verma and mayor Pushyamitra Bhargav were seen attending a meeting at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) office late Wednesday (January 7) night.
According to a report by The Indian Express, the meeting was acknowledged in part by the mayor who played it down. “As a swayamsevak, I often go to the RSS office. It has nothing to do with the present crisis,” Bhargav was quoted as saying by the daily. Collector Verma has not commented on it.
Meanwhile, some people aware of the closed-door discussions at the headquarters of RSS’s Malwa regional unit on Sudarshan Road told the newspaper that the meeting was convened by Rajmohan, RSS Malwa Prant Pracharak and that it focused on crisis management failures.
This raised concerns about the RSS’s interference in civic issues. The opposition Congress has slammed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state of "bowing down" to the organisation instead of looking after the people. The party has accused collector Verma of “working like a BJP worker”.
The contamination issue
The incident happened in the Bhagirathpura area of Indore in December and brought city officials under scrutiny. Apart from the deaths, more than 2,000 people fell sick consuming the sewage-contaminated water that flowed through drinking water taps of the municipal supply.
Over 100 residents from the area required hospital treatment.
Meanwhile, until last week, Indore municipal corporation officials said they had not been able to definitively find the source of contamination in the water.
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‘Routine visit’
The BJP has rejected claims of a link between the RSS meeting and water contamination issue, saying the former was a “routine visit” by the two officials.
BJP spokesperson Shivam Shukla was quoted by Express as saying, “It was a courtesy meeting, and there was nothing wrong with it. Can’t officials meet people? The Congress should stop spreading misinformation about the meeting.”
According to the daily, "Sources said the topic of discussion veered from coordination gaps, delayed response mechanisms and communication failures that allowed a negative public perception to build up regarding the contaminated water crisis".
Congress condemns
Sharing a video of the mayor standing outside the RSS office, Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari, said: “When poison is flowing through Indore’s taps, when there is mourning in homes over the death of innocent citizens, when the government has failed, should the collector be in the field, in hospitals, among the affected families, or inside the Sangh office?”
He added that the “late-night arrival” of the Indore collector and mayor at the RSS office was “no routine visit. It’s a case of chopping the nose of administrative impartiality.”
Further, taking a swipe at Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Patwari said one was “compelled to say” that Mohan Yadav was “not leading Madhya Pradesh, but turning it into a joke”. He added, “The entire state, along with Indore, is paying the price for this.”
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