Rahul meets patients, bereaved families of Indore water contamination victims

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday met patients and families affected by the vomiting and diarrhoea outbreak linked to water contamination in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore city, reports said. The visit comes amid continuing concerns over deaths and serious illnesses reported from the Bhagirathpura area.

Gandhi visited four patients undergoing treatment at Bombay Hospital, a private facility in Indore, where he enquired about their health conditions and spoke with their family members. Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari and party leader Umang Singhar accompanied him during the hospital visit.

He later travelled to Bhagirathpura, the locality where the outbreak was first reported last month, and interacted with families of the deceased. Gandhi expressed condolences and offered reassurance to grieving relatives, as residents continued to allege lapses in water safety and public health response.

Police made elaborate security arrangements ahead of Gandhi’s visit, installing barricades at several points in Bhagirathpura to manage the situation. Residents have claimed that at least 24 people have died due to the outbreak, while the state government has officially reported seven deaths, including a five-month-old infant, before the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

Meanwhile, a ‘death audit’ conducted by a committee of Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College indicated that 15 deaths could be linked to the outbreak in some manner. The administration has provided compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of 21 deceased persons, stating that assistance was extended on humanitarian grounds.