SC to hear today plea seeking probe into Morbi bridge mishap

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea seeking the constitution of a judicial commission to probe the Morbi bridge collapse incident in Gujarat which claimed over 130 lives.A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli will hear the PIL filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari, which said that the accident depicted the negligence and utter failure of the authorities.On November 1, Tiwari had mentioned the matter for urgent listing, and the top court had said it would take up the matter soon.According to reports, the death toll in the collapse of the British-era bridge on October 30 on the Machchhu river in Morbi in Gujarat has gone up to 134.”From the past decade, various incidents have taken place in our country wherein due to the mismanagement, lapse in duty, and negligent maintenance activities, there have been cases of huge public casualties which could have been avoided,” Tiwari has said in his PIL.The more than a century-old bridge, located around 300 km from state capital Gandhinagar, had reopened five days back after extensive repairs and renovation. It was crammed with people when it collapsed around 6.30 pm on October 30.