With Lok Sabha elections right around the corner, Uddhav Thackeray’s party Shiv Sena said in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana that the expansion of Mumbai and its ever increasing population has been causing infrastructure failure.
Nowhere in the editorial did the party mention who was actually responsible for a portion foot over bridge (FOB) collapsing on Thursday evening near the busy Mumbai CSMT railway station, that killed six people and injured more than 30.
Nor did the party blame the Maharashtra government led by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in an alliance with the Sena, or the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
In fact, the party said that the government has given compensation to family members of the deceased and will look after the injured. It added that the opposition will keep indulging in politics over the issue.
The party’s mouthpiece, however, raised questions on how bridges are not safe in Mumbai and people can be killed so easily.
Even after the BMC on Friday took responsibility for the incident and the structural audit, the editorial questioned who was responsible- railways or the BMC. It asked that if maintenance work was to be done, was the permission given by railways or not, and who owns the bridge- the BMC or railways.
Blaming the increasing population in the city, the Shiv Sena said it was reasons the maintenance and repair work was getting difficult.
It said there are several agencies and department both center and state working in Mumbai such as the BMC, MMRDA, MHADA and Mumbai Port Trust, due to which several works remain as they are and never get completed. Also, none of the departments take the responsibility which also hampers the work.
The party concluded saying that such incidents should not happen in the future.
