Gujarat govt issues show cause notice to Morbi municipality for dissolving it

Gujarat government has issued a show cause notice to Morbi municipality as to why it should not be dissolved for failing in discharging its duty in view of suspension bridge collapse which killed 147 people on October 30. The notice issued on January 18 is reported to have been approved by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel's office.

Incidentally, the notice was issued a day before Gujarat High Court was scheduled to hear a suo motu public interest litigation on the bridge collapse case. The division bench of the court led by chief justice Aravind Kumar had directed the state government to initiate action against Morbi municipality for failing to discharge its duty under section 263 of Gujarat Municipality Act, which empowers the government to dissolve or supersede a municipality in case of incompetency, default or abuse of power.

The state had responded that it was awaiting the opinion of a special investigation team (SIT) which was probing the incident and would act according to the findings. The high court bench was scheduled to take up the hearing on Thursday which was adjourned. Meanwhile, the show cause refers to several findings of the SIT which recently submitted its report to the government.

Also Read | Gujarat HC issues notice clock-making firm over Morbi bridge collapse

In the show cause notice, the state government has referred to several findings of the SIT including handing over maintenance and management of the British-era suspension bridge to clock-making firm Oreva Group sans approval of the general board of Morbi municipality.

The notice reads, "The chief officer, Morbi Nagarpalika should not have signed the agreement without prior approval of the General Board, as required under Section 65 3(c). Also, in the previous General Board meeting, the increase in user charges was rejected. Despite this, the chief signed the agreement with the clause to increase the rates. Moreso, the chief officer, Morbi Nagarpalika didn't put the said agreement for approval in the ensuing General Board Meeting." It goes on to say, "President, Vice President and Chairman, Executive Committee also confirmed the agreement by signing the Rojkam the same day."

It also adds that the SIT report makes it clear that the suspension bridge was in a dilapidated condition for two years and the municipality knew it yet it failed to take any concrete action. After the high court's direction to supersede the civic body, several members had made a representation to the chief minister as well as approached the court. The court had recently refused to entertain their plea.

Morbi municipality's general body has 52 seats. In the 2020 polls, BJP won all the seats. The party also won the assembly seat in December 2022 Assembly polls despite prediction of a defeat in view of the massive tragedy.

Key SIT findings

• No restriction on the number of persons accessing the bridge at a given point in time.
• No restriction on sale of tickets leading to unrestricted movement on the bridge.
• Insufficient security to prevent the public from damaging the bridge.
• Repair work was carried out without consulting competent technical experts.
• Testing of the main cable and vertical suspenders was not carried out before commencement of repair work.
• 2 of the 49 cables were corroded which indicates that those wires may already be broken before the incident. The remaining 27 wires recently broke.
• During repair works, old suspenders were welded with the new suspenders. Hence, behavior of the suspenders changed.
• Old suspenders were welded with the new suspenders. The bottom side of the new suspenders was joined to the cross girders of the deck.
• The deck comprised of honeycomb Aluminium sheets which was supported by 4 Aluminium channels, vis-a-vis, the old deck that was made of wooden planks supported by 3 channels. This led to an increase in the weight of the Bridge.
• The company (Oreva) outsourced the repair works to a non-competent agency.