A newly constructed bridge which was scheduled for inauguration on August 31 in Seoni district of Madhya Pradesh washed away in heavy rains on August 30, a day before the scheduled inauguration.
PWD Minister Bhupendra Singh claimed that the bridge has broken and someone is to be blamed. We have initiated a probe and guilty would not be spared, the minister told the media in Bhopal.
The bridge was built on Wainganga river in the Seoni district, around 350km from Bhopal. The district collector though has written to senior officials for probe. The bridge, a crucial mode of conveyance for locals was completed a month ago but was yet to be inaugurated. The villagers however had started using the structure.
As parts of Madhya Pradesh were lashed by heavy rains on the weekend, the newly constructed bridge could not withstand the water force and was washed away. Viral videos showed that a large portion of the new bridge was dismantled and pillars were seen protruding out of the river in spate.
The bridge’s construction had started in Shivraj Government in year 2018 and the structure was completed when the Shivraj government returned to power. And for obvious reasons, no one is eager to take the blame that too ahead of crucial assembly by-polls.
Opposition Congress has called this bridge another example of Shivraj-era corruption. Congress MLA Kunal Chaudhary told that there are several examples of huge corruption in the BJP government, led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the Seoni bridge is just one among them. The BJP government in past years has embezzled public’s hard earned money on such projects, added Chaudhary.
Congress media co-ordinator Narendra Saluja claimed that two bridges had been washed away in Seoni and one of them was built under PM sadak yojana. Seeing this example, corruption in all recent constructions should be probed.
To another bridge, around a decade old in nearby Sunwara too had washed away in heavy rains.
The bridge was built at a cost of around Rs 3 crore by a private construction company based in Bhopal under Prime Minister Gramin Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). The construction had started on Sep 1, 2018 and was to be completed before Aug 30, 2020, which was the case but the structure could not withhold the first rain.
A senior government engineer in Seoni claimed that the region witnessed massive rains before the mishap and the area was flooded and on Aug 28, 29; all the ten flood gates of nearby Bhimgarh dam were opened due to which the bridge could not survive and got damaged.
Seoni collector Rahul Haridas on Tuesday wrote a letter to Jabalpur divisional commissioner for assessment of construction quality of bridges in Sunwara and Bhimgarh. A divisional team will carry out a probe into these bridge collapse incidents.