Morbi bridge collapse: After HC, now Gujarat govt asks why Morbi municipality should not be dissolved
The government notice came on the eve of a scheduled hearing of a suo moto public interest litigation initiated by the HC and gave the municipality a week's time to respond.
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Search and rescue operations in Machhua river in Morbi, five days after the Jhulto Pul suspension bridge collapsed in October 2022. (Express photo by Bhupendra Rana) The Gujarat government served a notice on the Morbi municipality late Wednesday evening asking why the elected body should not be dissolved in view of the Jhulto Pul suspension bridge collapse in October last year. The government observed that the municipality had failed to discharge its duties as was evident by the bridge collapse in which 135 people lost their lives and 56 were injured.
The notice also cited the Gujarat High Court questioning the BJP government as to why it was not exercising Section 263 of the Municipalities Act to supersede the civic body. Section 263 of the Act empowers the state government to dissolve a municipality if it is found incompetent.
The government notice came on the eve of a scheduled hearing of a suo moto public interest litigation initiated by the HC and gave the municipality a week’s time to respond.
“…it appears that the Morbi municipality has failed to perform its duties (as enlisted in the appendix attached to this) as provided for in the Gujarat Municipalities Act, 1963, or in other laws. Hence, the Morbi Municipality is unable to discharge its duties made incumbent upon it by the said Act and therefore, in normal circumstances, the elected wing of the municipality is incompetent to discharge its primary duties,” the notice issued by the Urban Development and Urban Housing department of the state government said.
The office of the municipality president, Kusum Parmar, confirmed that it received the show cause notice late Wednesday. “We are discussing the matter with councillors of the Morbi Municipality and will take an appropriate decision in due time,” BJP leader and Kusum’s husband KK Parmar said Thursday. The BJP, which had won all the 52 seats in the civic body’s general board in the 2021 election, has absolute control over the municipality.
The notice cites the findings of the state government-constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT), which underscored that the chief officer of the Morbi municipality entered into an agreement with the OREVA Group handing it over the operations and maintenance of Jhulto Pul without due approval from the general board of the civic body.
The report also highlighted that Kusum, vice-president Jairajsinh Jadeja and executive committee chairman Suresh Desai, instead of forwarding the matter to the general board, gave their sanction to the agreement by signing a rojkam (work note).
The government notice, which cites seven reasons for dissolving the municipality, reads, “It was incumbent upon the Morbi Municipality to take over Jhulto Pul’s operations after its earlier contract with OREVA expired in 2017. But no concrete action was taken by the municipality for repairs or maintenance of the bridge, despite meetings taking place often at the office of district collector, Morbi in the presence of chief officer, Morbi Municipality. It is clearly established that despite it being aware of the weak and dilapidated condition of Jhulto Pul, the Morbi Municipality remained inactive for a long time and didn’t take appropriate action at the appropriate time,” the notice reads.
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