Rahul Gandhi meets patients, families of Indore water contamination victims

Rahul visited four patients undergoing treatment at Bombay Hospital, a private facility, enquired about their health and met their family members.

Indore: 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.

He visited four patients undergoing treatment at Bombay Hospital, a private facility, enquired about their health and met their family members.

Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari and party leader Umang Singhar accompanied Gandhi.

Gandhi also visited the Bhagirathpura area, where the outbreak was reported last month, and interacted with families of the deceased persons, expressing condolences and consoling them.

Police made elaborate security arrangements in Bhagirathpura ahead of Gandhi's visit and installed barricades at several locations.

Residents of Bhagirathpura have claimed that 24 people have died so far in the vomiting and diarrhoea outbreak that broke out in the locality last month. The state government, however, in its status report before the Madhya Pradesh High Court, has pegged the toll at seven, including a five-month-old infant.

Meanwhile, a 'death audit' report prepared by a committee of the government-run Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College indicated that the deaths of 15 people in Bhagirathpura could be linked to the outbreak in some manner.

The administration has paid compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of 21 people who died after the outbreak began.

Officials have claimed that while some deaths had occurred due to other illnesses and causes, authorities provided financial assistance to all bereaved families on humanitarian grounds.