Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 1, 2022, emphasised on “detailed, impartial and extensive” inquiry to identify all aspects relating to the Morbi bridge collapse tragedy, in which as many as 140 people lost their lives, in the worst such catastrophe to have occurred in Gujarat in recent years.
He said this chairing a high-level meeting during his visit to the disaster site in Morbi to review the situation and meet with the kin of victims and those undergoing treatment in the local government hospital.
He is understood to have told the officials that the inquiry must be impartial, and it must bring out the truth and its findings must be implemented.
Two days after the calamity on Sunday, the Prime Minister visited the grief-stricken town where the residents and local people are yet to come out of shock following the disastrous collapse of a British-era heritage suspension bridge on Machchu river that killed at least over 100 people including 45 children and as many women.
In pictures | Morbi bridge collapse
The State authorities must stay in touch with the affected families and ensure that they receive all possible help at this tragic hour, he said, after he was briefed on the rescue operation and the assistance provided to the affected families.
He began his brief trip to Morbi with a visit to the bridge collapse site where he reviewed the ongoing search-and-rescue operations. Rajkot district collector Arun Mahesh Babu, who supervised the operations, briefed the Prime Minister about the rescue operations at the site where at least 140 people were killed on October 30.
He also interacted with the personnel involved in the search operation. Subsequently, he visited Morbi civil hospital to meet those who are undergoing treatment.
The Prime Minister’s emphasis during the review meeting with the officials including the CM and others regarding conducting an “impartial and extensive inquiry” is meant to convey a message that nobody should be spared in the wake of a huge tragedy that has apparently raised several questions about the affairs of the state administration in his native State.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets the people who were involved in the rescue and relief operations following the cable bridge collapse mishap that struck Morbi on Sunday. | Photo Credit: ANI
On Monday, shocked with the horrific tragedy, the entire town remained closed mourning the deaths of innocent people whose weekend stroll at the heritage bridge that remained an identity of Morbi for over a century turned into a carnage.
Meanwhile, Gujarat government continues to face serious allegations over the tragedy and how a firm making wall clocks and electric bulbs and calculators was handed the responsibility for the bridge’s maintenance, upkeep, reparations, and management for 15 years while seemingly neglecting the safety aspects.
After the Congress leaders, who demanded sacking of the Chief Minister, who is also urban development minister of the State, now AAP convener and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has also demanded that the Gujarat CM must be asked to resign in the wake of the catastrophe in Morbi.
Both the Congress leaders and Mr Kejriwal asked the Gujarat government to clarify what prompted the authorities to select Oreva, which has no prior experience of building or maintaining any normal bridges, let alone a highly mechanical suspension bridge, for maintenance and management of the 140-year-old bridge over the river.
On Tuesday, Congress spokesman Pawan Khera called the urban development department of Gujarat the “epicentre of corruption” and demanded criminal action against the minister and other officials for their complicity in the bridge incident.
Watch | Morbi bridge collapse, as it happened
There is however no statement either from the state government or from Oreva group even after two days of the incident regarding the contract under which the bridge was handed over to the private entity.
Moreover, leaders of both parties also sought to corner the ruling party over pictures and video clips circulated on social media platforms about sudden painting and refurbishment of civil hospital ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit there.
Both the parties on their official Twitter handles posted tweets of photos of the hospital where workers can be seen cleaning and painting a portion of the hospital. Leaders of rival parties took to the social media to slam the ruling party in Gujarat calling the painting and sprucing up of the hospital as “event management over dead bodies”.
In the pictures and video clips shared widely in social media platforms, workers were seen cleaning and painting a portion of the 300-bed hospital, which is a ground plus two-storey structure of three wings, ahead of PM Modi’s visit.
According to local sources, at least 35 workers worked through the night to repaint the entire exterior of the hospital, besides touch-ups inside the wards where PM Modi met the victims on Tuesday. Toilets got new tiles too while the hospital campus was spruced up.
