Morbi civic body gets fresh notice on supersession issue

Morbi: The state Urban Development Department has issued a fresh notice to the Morbi Nagar Palika, asking it to explain why it should not be superseded.

The nagar palika members have decided to reply to the notice latest by Wednesday.

Former president of the Morbi Nagar Palika and present chairman of the Public Welfare Department Committee, Devabhai Avadia told IANS, “On Saturday, nagar palika received 47 pages SIT report sent by the state urban development, and has asked that now you have documents related to the suspension bridge collapse case, give a detailed explanation why the nagar palika should not be superseded? Either individual members or only the president or more than one member may submit the explanation by Wednesday.”

“Last time, when the urban development had issued a notice, the nagar palika general board had passed a resolution stating that in absence of documents related to the suspension bridge, it can’t reply,” he said.

The state government had constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by the Deputy Superintendent of Police to investigate the collapse of the suspension bridge on the Machchhu river on October 30 in which 132 persons, including 35 children, were killed.

In this connection, the state government has stated before the High Court that it will supersede Morbi Nagar Palika after holding it responsible for the bridge collapse. In a follow-up to this submission, the state has initiated the process of superseding the nagar palika.