Indore water contamination: No consensus on death toll as locals, CM & Mayor offer different figures
Indore (PTI): Conflicting claims over the number of deaths caused by consumption of contaminated water in Indore continued on Thursday, with residents claiming 13 fatalities, a day after Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav put the toll at four, while the city Mayor said seven persons lost life.
Cases of people suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting were first reported in the Bhagirathpura area of the city a week back. Local residents claimed that 13 people, including a six-month-old child, have died so far, while officials said only four deaths have been confirmed.
After visiting the affected area on Wednesday, CM Yadav pegged the death toll at four. Hours later, Indore Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava confirmed seven deaths.
The confusion over the death toll still continues due to these different numbers.
Officials said a preliminary assessment indicated that drainage water entered the drinking water pipeline due to leakage, triggering the outbreak in Bhagirathpura.
Bhagirathpura falls under the Indore-1 assembly constituency of state Urban Development and Housing Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya.
Talking to reporters, Vijayvargiya said 1,400 to 1,500 people were affected by the outbreak, of whom around 200 were admitted to hospitals.
All the admitted patients were out of danger and were being discharged continuously as their condition improved.
On the varying death figures, Vijayvargiya said, "Administrative officials have informed me that four people have died due to this outbreak, but there is information here (in Bhagirathpura) about eight to nine deaths. We will verify this information and if it is found to be correct, financial assistance will be provided to the families of the deceased as announced by CM Mohan Yadav."
Meanwhile, Additional Chief Secretary Sanjay Dubey visited the Bhagirathpura area along with local officials to review the situation.
Officials said water supply was restored in Bhagirathpura on Thursday after repairing the leakage in the drinking water pipeline, and water samples were collected from households and sent for testing.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
