The collapse of the Morbi bridge and the death of over 135 people has bought a blanket of sadness over all of India. On October 31st, the Morbi bridge, located in Gujarat collapsed and fell into the Machchhu river below it. The 145-year-old bridge was under renovation for the past six months and was opened to the public on 26th October. The contract for renovations and maintenance of the bridge was given to The Overa Group, a flagship of Ajanta clocks; the world's largest wall clock makers, with absolutely zero previous track record of taking such a task on.
On the day of reopening, the Overa group said that the bridge will not need renovations for at least 8-10 years, they also stated to have bought “experts” for the repair and used “materials made by specialised firms”. Reports also confirm that at the time of collapse the bridge was overpacked with 350-400 people whereas the limit of the bridge was only 150 people at a time. In a video taken just as the bridge fell, we can see people trying to swing the bridge.
Poor construction and overcapacity seem to be the reason the suspension of the bridge snapped and caused terrible deaths. As the survivors recall what was “the most terrifying experience ever” Morbi municipality is trying to wipe their hands clean of the incident, as Sandeep Singh Jhala, chief officer of Morbi's municipality, made a statement that the administration was not informed nor were any checks done and the fitness specification certificate was also not issued for the bridge. If this was the case then why didn't the municipal corporation intervene earlier? What exactly were they waiting for? Or did they just not care enough?
As condolences and regrets are coming in from world leaders all over the world, India's leaders are quite busy factoring “this incident” into their electoral run. One of the comments was made by the Congress president of Morbi District Jayantilal Patel, who said “The incident has highlighted the failure of the system… This will have a tremendous impact on the outcome of the Morbi seat.” And the working president of the Gujarat Congress Lalit Kagathara said, “This incident will impact the BJP not just in Morbi Constituency, but in entire Gujarat. People have witnessed the failure of the administration. Modi saheb is talking about making defence equipment, and we have not been able to maintain a bridge. People have realised that these people are just making hollow claims.”
And a very concerned Durlabhji Dethariya expressed that since the contract was given to a private firm it was very wrong to blame the government he then continued, “… I do not think that this incident will affect our party. Our government and party workers have fully performed their duties." He obviously was not talking about giving the contract to a proper firm or checking before the bridge was opened, and he was definitely not talking about how the government failed to do anything to close the bridge once it was opened “supposedly without their knowledge”.
As the search continues Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the river site on 1st November and overlooked the rescue operations still ongoing. He even took time to visit the injured patients at the hospital. The hospital in question went through a small renovation in anticipation of the PM’s arrival. Reports say that a separate ward was painted, and lined with fresh new sheets and the hospital even went so far as to brief a selected bunch of petrified and injured survivors on the correct “behaviour” while talking to the Prime Minister.
The hospital even bought new water coolers, most of which were not turned on or connected, and the bathrooms nearest to the “new” ward even had their tiles replaced. Those injured were then transferred into the freshly painted ward overnight. This was the only ward PM Modi visited.
As of now, police have arrested 9 people, which include security personnel of the bridge, two of Overa’s managers and two ticket booking clerks, as well as two people who were contracted to repair the structure. The punishment they will be given is still unsure. The question we must ask is that in order to save face, has the blame been passed on to a selected few instead of the entire company and municipal corporation of Morbi? We wonder as more and more families hear of the deaths of their loved ones from the collapsed bridge.
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