Ahmedabad: The Gujarat government on Monday told the High Court it had decided to dissolve the municipality of Morbi, where a suspension bridge collapse on October 30 had killed 135 persons. As suggested by the division bench of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice AJ Shastri earlier, the state government also agreed to hike the compensation to the kin of victims from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.
Through its affidavit, the state government on Monday informed the court it will "dissolve" Morbi Municipality and will initiate "proceedings under section 263 of Gujarat Municipalities Act and disciplinary proceedings against the then chief officer of Morbi, SV Zala". Under Zala, Morbi Municipality had signed an agreement with Oreva Group in March 2022 for the maintenance and operation of the ill-fated bridge. Elections to the Morbi Municipality, now ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, were held in February 2021.
Advocate General Kamal Trivedi further informed the court the state government has decided to "pay an additional compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the relatives of the deceased persons", which would take the total compensation to Rs 10 lakh. The state government has already paid Rs 6 lakh to the relatives of each of the 135 deceased, while it has decided to give an additional Rs 1 lakh each to injured persons having less than 40 per cent disability, and Rs 2 lakh as additional compensation to those injured whose disability is more than 40 per cent.
During Monday's hearing, the HC bench directed the government to maintain a register of all the "public structures" and said period audits should be carried out to avoid such mishaps. The British-era suspension bridge on the Machchhu river Morbi town collapsed on October 30, and the HC, in November, took suo motu (on its own) cognisance of a news report on the bridge collapse and registered it as a Public Interest Litigation. Further hearing on this case will be held on December 21. (PTI)
