Indore: Videos of homeless elderly goes viral, CM suspends official

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday suspended an Indore Municipal Corporation officer after videos showing elderly destitute people picked from the streets and dropped along the highway outside the city limits went viral on social media.

The incident came to light after villagers along the highway, where the elderly were dropped off, objected to it and began making videos of it. Subsequently, the elderly people were put back in the vehicle and taken away. The vehicle belonged to the encroachment removal department.

Soon after the videos went viral, Chief Minister Chouhan taking cognizance of the issue suspended Indore Municipal Corporation Deputy Superintendent Pratap Solanki, who was entrusted with the work of shifting the destitute and beggars during the extreme cold situation to Rain Basera, a government-run shelter house for the destitute. Two supervisors, Brajesh Lashkari and Vishwas Vajpayee, were removed from service.

In a statement, Indore Municipal Commissioner Paribha Pal said that considering the extreme cold in the city a drive is being undertaken to send the homeless and orphaned along with the elderly to government-run shelters.

“Based on prima facia evidence gathered from the video which went viral, two supervisors Brajesh Lashkari and Vishwas Vajpayee have been removed from service for negligence on their part while trying to put the elderly into the vehicles. The elderly people have been sent to Rain Basera for shelter during winter.”

An official said there are around 20 shelter homes and around this time every year destitute and elderly living on roadsides are accommodated there owing to the winter.