Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday accused the Modi government and the BJP of failing to provide either clean drinking water or clean air, alleging that ordinary people were paying the price for administrative incompetence.
Referring to deaths caused by contaminated drinking water in Indore, Kharge said Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued to highlight flagship initiatives such as the Jal Jeevan Mission while remaining silent on the crisis in the Madhya Pradesh city.
“Narendra Modi ji, who never gets tired of trumpeting the Jal Jeevan Mission and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, is maintaining his usual silence on the deaths caused by drinking contaminated water in Indore,” Kharge said in a post in Hindi on X.
He pointed out that Indore had been declared the country’s cleanest city for the eighth consecutive year in the Centre’s Swachh Sarvekshan survey.
“This is the same Indore city that has clinched the ‘Cleanest City’ title for the eighth consecutive time in the central government's Swachh Sarvekshan survey. It's a shameful state of affairs that, due to the BJP's incompetence, people here are desperate for clean water,” the Congress president said.
Kharge alleged that for the past 11 years the country had been subjected to “long speeches, lies and deceit, empty promises, and boasts about the ‘double-engine’ government”.
“When ministers are questioned, they resort to abuses and intimidation. Drunk on the arrogance of power, they turn the tables on the journalists.
Also read: INC Foundation Day: Kharge extols party’s welfare work
“The entire machinery swings into action to cover up the misgovernance of BJP governments,” he said.
Claiming that government schemes were riddled with corruption, Kharge said that only 10 per cent of the Jal Jeevan Mission funds were earmarked for purifying contaminated water.
“The Modi government and the BJP have failed to provide either clean water or clean air to the country. The common people are the ones suffering,” he said.
At least 10 people have died following a diarrhoea outbreak caused by contaminated water in the Bhagirathpura area of Indore. More than 1,400 people have been affected by vomiting and diarrhoea in the locality over the past nine days.
On Thursday, Chief Medical and Health Officer Madhav Prasad Hasani said laboratory reports from a city medical college confirmed contamination of the drinking water supply due to a leakage in a pipeline, though detailed findings were not shared.
Officials said a leakage was detected in the main drinking water pipeline near a police outpost in Bhagirathpura, at a location over which a toilet had been constructed.
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