HC slams Morbi civic body for ‘dereliction’
THE COURT ALSO TERMED AS ‘ABYSMALLY’ LOW THE AID BY GUJ GOVT TO THE FAMILIES OF THOSE WHO DIED IN THE ACCIDENT THAT CLAIMED 141 LIVES ON OCTOBER 30
AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Thursday came down heavily on the state government for providing inadequate compensation to the families of the victims of the bridge collapse in Morbi town even as it observed that the civic authority chief “was prima facie guilty of dereliction of duty”.
On October 30, a colonial-era bridge on the Machchu river collapsed, killing 141 people. The tragedy took place just days after the bridge was reopened for the public following seven months of renovation.
The state government have announced ₹4 lakh as compensation to the families of those who died in the accident, ₹50,000 to those who were injured and ₹3,000 per month to children who have lost their parcerned, ents.
While hearing a suo motu case, a bench of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh J Shastri said: “A family [of the deceased] should at least get Rs 10 lakhs as compensation,” the high court said on Thursday. “...The compensation proposed to be paid to the family of the deceased and other seriously injured people is conshow it is abysmally on the lower side. The compensation must be realistic. We hope and trust, this would be raised.”
On the compensation being given to children, the court said that it was insufficient as the amount would get spent in buying books and school uniform only.
The high court also sought details of the break-up of all the amounts received to provide compensation as to how much is from the chief minister’s relief fund, the prime minister’s relief fund, and how much has been donated by private individuals.
It further noted that the Morbi civic body was more interested about the price of tickets and retention of contract than about warnings that the bridge was in a critical condition, as told by private contractor Ajanta.
The contract for renovation of
The investigation
• revealed that the accused, Priyanka Mishra, had worked in the I-T department as an outsourced employee (data operator) in Gautam Buddh Nagar in 2016-17. The woman had
• distributed sweets there saying she qualified for civil services examination in 2017 and was later removed from the job over some anomalies, said a police official.