New Delhi: Several videos allegedly showing a group of elderly homeless people being abandoned on the city’s outskirts by the Indore Municipal Corporation has sparked outrage, leading two contractual municipality workers being fired for negligence.
The videos, which surfaced Friday, show the homeless people being offloaded from the back of a truck belonging to the encroachment removal department at the Indore-Dewas road. Following this, residents in the area objected, resulting in the homeless people being rounded up again and taken away.
UP Congress general secretary, Priyanka Vadra Gandhi, shared some of these videos on Twitter Saturday morning and said: “This incident of Indore, MP is a blot on humanity. The government and administration should apologize to these destitute people and action should be taken not on the small staff enforcing the order but on the higher officials who placed the order.”
An official at the Indore Municipal corporation told ThePrint, “These municipal employees, who are mostly contractual, were actually hired and tasked with taking the destitute and homeless people to the nearby night shelter in the city and take care of them. However, they just round them up and dump them on city outskirts.”
The incident comes at a time Indore is working to retain its title as the cleanest city for a fifth consecutive year.
Also read: From dumping grounds to golf courses — how Indore became India’s cleanest city
‘Homeless were supposed to be moved to shelters’
In a statement issued Friday, Indore Municipal Commissioner Pratibha Pal said two supervisors — Brajesh Lashkari and Vishwas Vajpayee — were removed from service for negligence based on the initial evidence gathered from the videos. Also, the elderly were sent to shelters in Rain Basera.
She added that a drive had been conducted in the city to move the homeless to government-run shelters given the prevailing extreme cold conditions in the city.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also took cognisance of the matter and ordered the suspension of Indore Municipal corporation deputy commissioner Pratap Solanki. “Inhuman treatment towards the elderly will not be tolerated at any cost. Every aged person should get respect and love. This is our culture and also human religion,” Chouhan said.
Also read: BJP leaders booked for organising Kalash Yatra in poll-bound Indore amid Covid
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