The city administration of Morbi cannot abdicate its responsibility by making that company open the bridge for use without obtaining security clearance. If this happened, Then it is a more serious matter.
It is ironic that the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to Vadodara and said that India would soon become the center of production of passenger and freight aircraft in the world, four days before the revival to ferry passengers across the Machhu river in Morbi. The swinging bridge that was opened broke down and fell. About one hundred and fifty people have lost their lives in this heart-wrenching accident. Another irony is that when a flyover collapsed in Kolkata just before the West Bengal Assembly elections in 2016, Modi linked it to the alleged corruption of the Mamata Banerjee government. He had said that if this government continues, then in this way the whole of West Bengal will be broken. Now a similar incident has happened in Gujarat just before the elections, so who is responsible for this, this question will definitely be asked. If we examine this question, there are three levels of accountability. The first responsibility, of course, lies with the private company that rebuilt this bridge built during the British Raj.
Meanwhile, the city administration of Morbi cannot abdicate its responsibility by making that company open the bridge for use without security clearance. If any agency in any city or state can be allowed to do so? If so, then it is a more serious matter. However, a responsibility in this matter also lies with the development model, in which public money or services are given to private companies and they are allowed to earn unbridled profits at the cost of public life and property. This model has been popularly known as Public-Private Partnership. If the experience of this model is not concretely assessed after the latest accident and the necessary questions are not raised on it, then the grief expressed about the casualties in Morbi will remain meaningless. It is to be kept in mind that the weak tradition of fixing accountability in our country is the main reason for such accidents happening every few days.
