Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government on Tuesday constituted a state-level committee to investigate the water contamination incident in Indore and submit a detailed report along with recommendations, officials said.
The committee will be headed by Sanjay Kumar Shukla, Additional Chief Secretary of the General Administration Department. It has been tasked with examining the root causes and key facts surrounding the contamination reported from Indore’s Bhagirathpura area. The panel will also assess possible administrative, technical and management lapses linked to the incident.
According to officials, the committee will fix accountability by identifying officers or employees responsible for the lapse and suggest corrective measures to prevent similar incidents in the future. It will also look into any other matters considered relevant to the investigation.
The panel has been authorised to seek records, reports and information from concerned departments and may conduct on-site inspections if required. The investigation report is to be submitted to the state government within one month.
Apart from Shukla, the committee includes Principal Secretary of the Public Health Engineering Department P Narhari and Commissioner of the Directorate of Urban Administration and Development Sanket Bhodave. Indore Divisional Commissioner Sudam Khade has been appointed as the member-secretary of the panel.
The formation of the committee comes amid conflicting claims over the death toll linked to the contamination. In a status report submitted to the Madhya Pradesh High Court, the state government stated that seven people, including a five-month-old infant, had died due to the incident. However, an audit report by a committee from the government-run Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College suggested that as many as 15 deaths in Bhagirathpura could be associated with the outbreak in some form.
Local residents have claimed that 24 people lost their lives following a vomiting and diarrhoea outbreak in the area last month. The administration has so far disbursed compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of 21 deceased persons.
Officials maintained that while some deaths were caused by other medical conditions, financial assistance was extended to all affected families on humanitarian grounds.
