Gujarat 31 oct (Press Ki Taquat) : Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a three-day tour to election-bound Gujarat, will be visiting Morbi on Tuesday, November 1, in the wake of the bridge collapse over Machchhu river that has led to the death of 133 people so far speaking in kevadi, Modi Monday said that he was pained by the tragedy in Morbi. “I express my condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the tragedy. The Gujarat government is with them. The state government has been carrying out rescue operations with its full strength,” he said.
Citing gross negligence and mismanagement, officers at B-division Morbi city police station lodged first information report (FIR) over the incident. The FIR has named “the agency responsible for maintaining the bridge” and the “management agency” as accused, without naming the company in-charge of maintenance and repair or specific individuals, under IPC sections 304 and 308 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), officers said.
The Gujarat government has appointed a five- members committee of bureaucrats and police officers to probe into the incident. A spokesperson of the Oreva Group, a private firm responsible for maintaining and managing the bridge, stated that “prima facie, the bridge collapsed as too many people in the mid-section of the bridge were trying to sway it from one way to the other.” Sandeepsinh Zala, Chief Officer, Morbi Municipality, told Press Ki Taquat that “the private firm threw the bridge open to visitors without notifying us and therefore, we couldn’t get a safety audit of the bridge conducted… the local municipality had not yet issued any fitness certificate (after the renovation work).”
