The Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court has set up a commission of inquiry comprising a former HC judge to investigate the issue of water contamination recently in the city’s Bhagirathpura area. The court stated that the situation requires urgent judicial scrutiny and a probe by an independent, credible authority to determine the root cause of the crisis. It also directed the commission to submit an interim report after four weeks from the date of commencement of proceedings.

 

A division bench of Justices Vijay Kumar Shukla and Alok Awasthi constituted the commission while hearing several public interest litigations (PILs) regarding the deaths of several people in Bhagirathpura due to the consumption of contaminated water. The High Court reserved the order after hearing all the parties during the day and released it late at night.

 

The government presented an audit report of 23 deaths from the current gastroenteritis epidemic in Bhagirathpura before the bench, suggesting that 16 of these fatalities may have been linked to the outbreak of vomiting and diarrhoea caused by contaminated drinking water. It is averred that sewage mixing, leakage in the pipeline, and failure of civic authorities to maintain potable water standards have led to the outbreak of water-borne diseases.