INDORE: A deathly silence prevails in Bhagirathpura area of Indore. Barring a few people at makeshift medical camps, its lanes are empty. With over 200 people from the area admitted in as many as 27 hospitals across the city after being afflicted with diarrhoea, most residents have been away attending to the illness since Monday night when they began vomiting and developed high fever. Nine persons have died till now. Tragedy struck Bhagirathpura when a pit to clear waste from a toilet built at the local police check post began leaking, leading to the waste water mixing with the main water supply line that ran just beneath it. Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) officials said the contractor had channeled the output from the toilet to a pit above the main water supply line rather than constructing a septic tank and connecting it to the sewage line. On Thursday, even as Madhya Pradesh govt officials scrambled to fix responsibility, spruce up treatment facilities, and clean up the water supply system, Sadhana Sahu, a teacher at a private school, sat on the doorstep of her home in Bhagirathpura and wept uncontrollably. She has lost her six-month-old son. “Abhyan was born 10 years after we had a daughter. Bas, mera bachcha nahin raha (My child is no more),” Sadhana said. Abhyan’s father, Sunil Sahu, who works from home for an internet firm, said, “He had diarrhea and fever. We took him to a doctor on Dec 26. We brought him back home after he was prescribed medicines. He was fine the next two days but suddenly developed high fever, vomited, and died at home on Monday. We couldn’t even take him to a hospital.” “The contaminated water caused his death. I had mixed water with his milk and his health deteriorated,” Sadhana said. Wailing could be heard from some of the homes where death had struck. Almost every household in Bhagirathpura – which has a population of about 15,000, most from economically weak sections living cheek-by-jowl – has one or more people afflicted. “We earn little and barely manage to survive,” said Alguram Yadav of Borasi ki Gali. His wife Urmila, 65, died on Sunday. His son Sanju, daughter-in-law Roshini and grandson Shivam (11 months) are admitted to hospitals with the same symptoms that took Urmila’s life. “Nobody had turned up to help, though some administrative officials came to check. Kailash-ji (state minister Kailash Vijayvargiya) came to hand over a Rs 2 lakh check as compensation, announced by the CM on Wednesday” he said.
