Suspension bridge collapse: 5 months after deaths of 135, Gujarat govt supersedes Morbi municipality

Kusum Parmar, president of the now-superseded municipality, could not be reached for a comment.

On being asked why the Morbi municipality was superseded, Sanjeev Kumar, who holds the charge of Principal Secretary, Urban Development and Urban Housing department told The Indian Express, “It is basically a government decision and the Additional Collector (of Morbi district) has been appointed as the administrator. Earlier some notices were issued to the municipality.”

The suspension bridge on the Machchhu river in Morbi town collapsed on October 30, 2022. The bridge was maintained and operated by Oreva Group under an agreement signed with the municipality in March 2022.

In its show-cause notice on January 18, the government observed that the 52-member general board of Morbi municipality was “incompetent of discharging its primary duties” and asked the civic body why it should not be suspended in view of the bridge collapse.

While hearing a suo motu public interest litigation in November 2022, a Gujarat High Court bench headed by then Chief Justice Aravind Kumar observed that “there was a default” on the party of the municipality with respect to the bridge collapse. The bench asked the state government why it was not superseding the municipality by using Section 263 of the Gujarat Municipalities Act, 1963.

The municipality’s general board met on January 23 and through a resolution, asserted that a special investigation team (SIT) formed by the state government to probe the bridge collapse had seized documents related to the Jhulto Pul bridge and therefore, the civic body was not in a position to reply to the notice. The resolution had also requested the government to provide the documents.
Subsequently, the state government sent a copy of the SIT’s primary report, which had copies of documents, to the municipality on February 3 and asked the latter to send its reply to the show-cause notice “without any delay”.

As the Morbi municipality didn’t file its response, the government sent a reminder to the municipality on February 13 to reply by February 16. It also warned that if the municipality didn’t respond by that date, ex parte order would be passed in the matter.