'Act of GOD or act of FRAUD’: Congress' Digvijaya Singh MOCKS PM Narendra Modi over Morbi bridge collapse

Bhopal: Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Gujarat government over the collapse of a suspension bridge on Machchhu river in Gujarat’s Morbi district, in which at least 135 persons have died. Slamming the Centre over the tragedy, the Congress veteran asked to know if it was an “act of God or an act of fraud”.

मोदी जी मोरबी के पुल की दुर्घटना “Act of God है या Act of Fraud है?”
3/n #MorbiBridge

Watch Narendra Modi say the Kolkata flyover collapse was a message from god about Mamata https://t.co/0AfMfSaKPD via @scroll_in — digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) October 30, 2022

Digvijaya Singh, who issued several tweets on the incident, was playing on the phrase that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had reportedly used at a rally while lampooning the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal after the Vivekananda Road flyover collapsed in Kolkata on March 31, 2016, killing many. “Modi ji, is the Morbi bridge accident an Act of God or Act of Fraud?” Singh tweeted while quoting a 2016 news report.

He said the bridge was under repair for six months but collapsed five days after it was reopened. In Gujarat, where the Bharatiya Janata Party has been in power for 27 years, the Narmada canal broke during the first day’s testing at village Bidra in Kutch district in July this year, while an overbridge in Bhuj, which took 8-9 years to build, had to be repaired within a year of commissioning, Singh claimed.

६ महीनों से पुल की मरम्मत हो रही थी कितना खर्च आया? ५ दिन में गिर गया!!
२७ वर्षों से भाजपा की सरकार है यही आपका Development Model है?
इसी साल जुलाई में कच्छ ज़िले के ग्राम बिदड़ा में नर्मदा नहर पहले दिन की टेस्टिंग में ही टूट गई।
4/n#MorbiBridge — digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) October 30, 2022

While the rescue and relief operation is underway in full swing, Army, Navy, Air Force, NDRFand Fire Brigade teams are conducting search operations. State's Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel is monitoring the situation and state and central and state government agencies are also coordinating it. The state government has also formed an SIT to probe the tragic Morbi bridge collapse. 

Injured victims have been admitted to the Morbi Civil Hospital for treatment after the cable bridge collapsed on Sunday evening. Gujarat's Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi has also assured that a case has been registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the management team of the Morbi bridge after the traffic incident. 

Gujarat’s Morbi town will voluntarily observe a ‘bandh’ on Monday to mourn the deaths of those who died after the cable bridge collapsed on Sunday. The death toll in Gujarat’s Morbi bridge collapse incident has now reached 135 and over 177 people have been rescued so far. As many as 135 bodies have been recovered by the rescuers and several people are still feared missing.

Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel has set up a five-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by an IAS officer to inquire into the suspension bridge collapse in Morbi town, which left over 100 dead. The SIT will be headed by Commissioner of Municipalities Rajkumar Beniwal, and the other members are Secretary, Roads and Building Department, Sandeep Vasava, Inspector General of Police Subhash Trivedi, and two engineers specialised in structural and quality control. 

The state government has deployed four NDRF teams, as well as defence personnel in search and rescue operations, and even summoned swimmers and divers from surrounding districts. According to locals, the bridge contractor was charging Rs 12 and 17 from visitors.

The suspension bridge on the Machchhu river in Gujarat's Morbi that collapsed on Sunday evening killing several people was reopened for the public just four days back after seven months of repair work by a private firm, but had not received the municipality's "fitness certificate", an official said told PTI. The more than a century-old bridge in Morbi city caved in around 6.30 pm when it was crammed with people.