Indore | The Congress on Thursday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for `not offering a single word of condolence' over the deaths due to contaminated water in Indore, and asked the people of Thiruvananthapuram not to trust his promises ahead of the assembly elections in Kerala.
The BJP's "triple-engine" government failed to do any good to Indore, the cleanest city of the country where "20 persons" have died due to contaminated water, said senior Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh minister Sajjan Singh Verma.
After the BJP's victory in Thiruvananthapuram municipal polls, Modi wrote a letter congratulating the local BJP leadership and accused the earlier Congress and Left Party governments of bad governance and corruption, Verma noted.
In an open letter to the people of the Kerala capital, he said Modi had made "same false commitments" (about bringing good governance and development) to the people of Indore too.
"In the last eight days, 20 people have died in Indore because of consumption of poisonous drinking water as the sewer line got mixed with drinking water line. Despite such a huge massacre not a single word of condolence was given by PM Modi," the Congress leader claimed.
Notably, officials have put the death toll due to contaminated water in Bhagirathpura area of Indore at seven.
The BJP keeps claiming that Madhya Pradesh is run by a triple-engine government (benefits from the party being in power in the centre, state and local bodies), Verma said, adding, "Since shortly there are assembly elections in Kerala, PM Modi is raising false hopes and (offering) deceptive allure to the public of Thiruvananthapuram."
In a sarcastic remark, he said the BJP is in power in Indore municipal corporation for 25 years, has won the last ten Lok Sabha elections from the city, and is governing Madhya Pradesh for 22 years, but "achievements of the triple-engine government are now bringing laurels nationwide."
"You must have read in the newspapers how the 25 years of the BJP government failed to provide clean drinking water to its citizens. Currently hundreds of people are hospitalised and many of them are in critical care...," said the Congress leader.
Citizens of Thiruvananthapuram are educated enough and well aware of their civic rights and liabilities, and should respond appropriately to false hopes given by the prime minister in the coming assembly elections, he said.
