Morbi bridge collapse: Oreva forms compensation trust, High Court seeks Action Taken Report against officials who erred

Meanwhile, Oreva, which was in charge of the maintenance and repair of the bridge, informed the court that it has registered a trust for the welfare and compensation disbursement to the victims — the next of kin of the deceased as well as those injured in the incident — and will soon be opening a bank account with an initial corpus of Rs 15 lakh.

The trust — Sahay Seva Parivaar Trust, Morbi — was registered following suggestions from the court in previous hearings to support and take care of the needs of the victims, including widows, orphaned children or children left with one parent and those who suffered disabilities, among others.

Senior counsel Nirupam Nanavaty, on behalf of the company, informed the bench that the trust has seven trustees, including representatives from the company as well as four government officials.

The court recommended that the trustees now sit together and work out a mechanism for executing the proposals of compensation and support to the victims. The court also directed that the minutes of the meeting also be brought on the court’s record.

The court sought the Action Taken Report after it, in its order in October 2023, had recorded the state’s submission that it would place such a report after the Special Investigating Team (SIT) in the case submitted its final report on October 9, 2023.

However, such a report was yet to be submitted by the state, the court noted. Recording that the contents of the final SIT report had detailed about the lapses on the part of the office-bearers of the Morbi municipality, including the chief officer, the court directed advocate general Kamal Trivedi to submit the said report.

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