Action against guilty in Bihar bridge collapse: Nitish Kumar
PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said strict action would be taken against those found guilty in the collapse of an underconstruction bridge over the Ganga river, even as the opposition BJP alleged that Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav was “hiding the truth” in the incident.
The saffron party slammed Yadav, the RJD leader, for his comment that “many structural defects” of the bridge have been pointed out by experts, and “the state government has already pulled down many portions which have been flagged as particularly vulnerable”.
The 3.16-km-long bridge was supposed to connect Khagaria district with Bhagalpur.
It collapsed twice in the last 14 months — the first on Bhagalpur’s Sultanganj side in April 2022 and the second time on Sunday evening on the Khagaria side.
“The bridge is not being constructed properly and that is why it collapsed twice since April 2022. It’s a serious matter The department concerned has already initiated a thorough probe into it. Strict action will be taken against those found guilty,” Kumar said, while talking to reporters here.
He also wondered why the bridge construction work that started in 2014 has not been completed so far. “Why is it running behind the schedule? I have asked the department concerned to probe this also. The deputy CM is monitoring the matter,” Kumar said.
The incident attracted public outrage, prompting the chief minister to order an investigation with instructions to punish those guilty for the disaster.
As media outlets beamed the video footage of the bridge collapse, the state BJP came out with a statement demanding the resignation of Kumar, who had snapped ties with the saffron party in August last year.
Reacting to Yadav’s remark, senior BJP leader and former state road construction department minister Nitin Nabin said: “I must say that the deputy chief minister is hiding the truth he is not revealing the facts.
“When experts who inspected the bridge had already informed the government that there were serious structural defects, then why did the government allow the continuation of the construction work? The department should have immediately stopped that.”
Nabin also claimed that even after the matter was raised in the state assembly during the budget session in March this year, the deputy CM “did not bother to inform the House about the status of the construction work”.