Congress alleges 15 deaths in Indore as official toll remains at five; CM orders action against top officials

The Madhya Pradesh Congress has alleged that at least 15 people have died so far after drinking contaminated water supplied by the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC), even as the BJP-led State government maintained the official death toll at five, including a woman who died on Friday (January 2, 2026).

After a review meeting chaired by M.P. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Friday (January 2), the State government transferred one senior official in the IMC, as the Congress called for accountability and action to be taken against all those responsible. Former CM and BJP leader Uma Bharti also lashed out at her own party’s government, seeking “maximum punishment” to all culprits.

In a status report submitted to the M.P. High Court, the district administration and the State Health Department said that four people, all above 60 years of age, have died so far in Indore’s Bhagirathpura due to water-related problems. Indore District Collector Shivam Verma later updated the death toll to five.

“The administration issues the figures on the basis of medical confirmation and so far, five deaths have occurred in the incident,” Mr. Verma said. “We have also constituted a team of senior doctors which will analyse the death figures which were received from other sources such as public representatives or media and then we will update our official death figure report. Till yesterday, 201 people were admitted; today, nine more people have been admitted, and the number has risen to 210.”

During his visit to Indore on Wednesday (December 31, 2025), Chief Minister Mohan Yadav had also said, “There is information of four deaths but Indore is a big city and [people] also go to private hospitals. So, there is a criteria of government-conducted post-mortem. But our concern is that why should even one death take place.”

Indore Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargav also told news agency PTI that he has “received information of about 10 deaths due to this outbreak”.

Meanwhile, IMC Additional Commissioner Rohit Sisoniya was transferred on Friday (January 2) and show-cause notices were issued against him and Commissioner Dileep Yadav. Public discontent against the civic body has worsened due to a delay in taking action on residents’ complaints of dirty water and delays in starting work to lay a fresh water supply line. In-charge superintendent engineer Sanjeev Shrivastava was also relieved of the charge of the water distribution department.

These actions were taken on the Chief Minister’s instructions after a report was submitted by Additional Chief Secretary (Urban Administration and Development) Sanjay Dubey.

“This morning, I reviewed the actions being taken by the State government in the Indore contaminated drinking water case with the Chief Secretary and other officials, and issued necessary directions and guidelines,” Mr. Yadav said in a post on X.

As per an order from Chief Secretary Anurag Jain, Mr. Sisoniya has been made a deputy secretary in the Farmers Welfare and Agriculture Development Department, while three IAS officers have been made Additional Commissioners in the IMC.

Mr. Sisoniya had been handling multiple departments at the civic body and the move is aimed at delegating the work. He has also been facing allegations of stalling work on a new water supply line for Bhagirathpura following residents’ complaints of dirty water.

“Complaints of dirty water had been coming from the area for more than a year now. This is why the project for a new supply line was added in a note-sheet in November, 2024, and the tender was issued in August, 2025. But it was not opened and the work remained stalled,” an official at the IMC said.

At a meeting with Mr. Dubey on Thursday (January 1), Mr. Bhargav is learnt to have alleged that Mr. Susoniya and other senior officials of the civic body were not listening to public representatives as he claimed that the water issues in Bhagirathpura had been brought up before officials several times in the past few months.

The Madhya Pradesh Mahila Congress’ recently-appointed president Reena Bourasi termed the government’s measures in the wake of the tragedy as “a mere cover-up” and alleged that those responsible are being protected.

“The government is trying to protect the accused in the case of the death of 15 people. The government only pretended to take action after Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, tweeted about the incident. This government did not take any action even on the demands of its own departmental Minister and the city’s mayor,” she said, adding that the transfer of one official is not enough to fix accountability for the tragedy.

“Transfer is a part of the administrative process; it is not a punishment,” she added.

The Chief Minister also held a review meeting with top officials and public representatives of all 16 urban bodies and officials of various departments, and issued directions for corrective measures across the State to prevent such incidents in future.

“For this purpose, instructions have been given to the concerned officials to prepare time-bound programmes,” he said on X.

More than 2,800 people have so far fallen ill after consuming Narmada river water supplied to tap connections by the civic body. A lab report of more than 70 water samples collected from Bhagirathpura and nearby areas confirmed contamination in 26 samples.

While the type of contamination is yet to be made public, a senior official said that the report suggests a “polymicrobial contamination” as bacterias, viruses and parasites have all been found in the samples.

In a series of tweets, former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Uma Bharti hit out at the State government of her own party while seeking “maximum punishment” to those responsible.

In an apparent attack on Mr. Bhargav, Ms. Bharti said on X: “In the case of Indore’s contaminated water, who is saying that they were not heard? When you were not heard, why did you continue to drink Bisleri water while sitting in your position? Why didn’t you leave the position and reach out to the public? There is no explanation for such sins — either atonement or punishment!”

“In the city that received the award for being the cleanest city in the State, such ugliness, filth, and poisoned water that has swallowed so many lives and continues to do so, the death toll is rising. The price of life is not ₹2 lakh because their families remain immersed in grief for a lifetime. A severe atonement must be made for this sin, an apology must be sought from the affected people, and maximum punishment must be given to all the culprits from bottom to top. This is a testing time for Mr. Mohan Yadav,” she said.

“Not just the Mayor of Indore, but the governance and administration of Madhya Pradesh, all those responsible for this great sin are standing in the dock of crime against the public,” she added.