Gujarat Govt supersedes Morbi municipality five months after bridge collapse tragedy
Morbi (PTI): Months after a suspension bridge collapsed in Morbi town of Gujarat killing 135 people, the state government on Tuesday superseded the town's municipality, said an official.
The civic body was controlled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which rules in the state too.
"The state government has superseded the Morbi municipality," Morbi district collector G T Pandya told PTI.
The suspension bridge on the Machchhu river in Morbi town collapsed on October 30, 2022, killing 135 persons. The bridge was maintained and operated by Oreva Group under an agreement signed with the municipality.
In January, the state Urban Development Department had issued a show-cause notice to the municipality asking why it should not be dissolved for failing to discharge its duties.
According to the government, the Oreva Group had written several letters to the municipality between 2018 and 2020 warning that the condition of the bridge was dilapidated and a serious accident might happen if the bridge remained open to the public.
The civic body did not heed these warnings by the company, the show-cause notice claimed.
The municipality also did not take any concrete action to take over the bridge from the company in 2017 after the completion of the contract, it said.
The notice also cited the findings of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to state that Oreva Group committed several lapses in repair, maintenance and operation of the bridge.
The municipality, in its reply to the notice, pleaded innocence saying that it had never given approval to hand over the bridge to Oreva Group.
As many as 41 of its 52 councillors submitted a separate reply asserting that the majority of them were not aware of the agreement under which the bridge was handed over to Oreva Group.
All the 52 elected councillors of the Morbi municipality were from ruling BJP.
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J-K: Six held with drugs, assets worth Rs 73 lakh attached in Udhampur
Jammu (PTI): Six persons were taken into custody during an intensified anti-narcotics crackdown, with police recovering contraband substances and over Rs 23 lakh in Doda and Kathua districts of Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Monday.
In a parallel action, properties worth over Rs 73 lakh linked to drug peddlers were also attached in Udhampur district under relevant legal provisions, the police said.
Additional Superintendent of Police, Doda, Mohd Aslam said three persons, including a woman, were detained during a raid on a house at Dak Mohalla in the main town following recovery of 85 grams of suspected brown sugar and over Rs 23 lakh on Sunday evening.
He identified the woman as Zareena Begum, stating that she had been under police surveillance following inputs indicating her involvement in drug peddling.
Besides Zareena, officials said her daughter and son-in-law were also picked up by police during the raid.
“We have taken three individuals into custody. Their roles are being examined, and based on that, arrests will be made. We are continuing raids at other suspected locations,” Aslam said.
Three drug peddlers --Pardeep Singh of Hiranagar, Rahees Butt of Billawar and Ali Sen of Amritsar (Punjab) -- were arrested along with heroin at different places in Kathua district, a police spokesman said.
He said while 2.79 gm of heroin was seized from Singh, 2.66 gm were recovered Butt. Similarly, 303 gm of heroin was seized from Sen who was intercepted near Berrian-Pattan village while moving in a private car from Bhagthali to Maggar Khad on the Jammu-Pathankot highway.
All the three were booked under the NDPS Act and further investigations are on, the spokesman said.
In Udhampur, the spokesman said properties worth Rs 73 lakh were attached in two separate cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The attached properties included a newly constructed residential house, a car, a motorcycle and a mobile phone with a total value of Rs 65 Lakh, belonging to accused Saif Ali who was booked under the NDPS case in Majalta area early this year, he said.
In another action, movable property worth Rs 8 lakh comprising a car, belonging to accused Danish Butt of Doda has been attached under Section 68(F) NDPS Act in connection with an FIR registered at Rehambal police station, the spokesman said.
