The Congress party has demanded the resignation of Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi over the recent bridge collapse in Gambhira, which claimed 16 lives and left seven people missing. Congress leaders Jignesh Mevani and Lalji Desai blamed the Gujarat government for the tragedy, citing repeated warnings about the bridge’s vulnerability that fell on deaf ears.
“The Gambhira bridge collapse was only one in a series as 16 major tragedies owing to such disasters had taken place during the last 4 years. Not a single person had been held responsible,” said Jignesh Mevani.
“Politicians and bureaucrats were sharing the bribes in a 20:20 ratio, each claiming twenty percent from every contract and project,” alleged Lalji Desai.
Mevani, also a Congress member in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly, accused the Gujarat Home Minister of resorting to a cover-up, saying even after FIRs are lodged and charge-sheets filed, nothing comes out.
Desai claimed that corrupt and blacklisted contractors and companies are allotted work once they bribe the BJP and the bureaucracy.
The Congress party demanded a high-level committee of officers with integrity to probe the 16 incidents of bridge collapse in the last four years.
The Congress party also sought answers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, given their ties to Gujarat. Mevani challenged the Gujarat CM to show a single person held responsible for these incidents who is behind bars, highlighting the lack of accountability in the state government.