A recent bridge collapse in Gadchiroli has ignited a political firestorm, with NCP SP legislator Rohit Pawar accusing Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his government of corruption and negligence. In response, the BJP has counter-attacked, asserting that the bridge was constructed during the MVA government's tenure, implicating former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and the contractor appointed under his administration.

A recent bridge collapse in Gadchiroli has ignited a political firestorm, with NCP SP legislator Rohit Pawar accusing Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his government of corruption and negligence. In response, the BJP has counter-attacked, asserting that the bridge was constructed during the MVA government's tenure, implicating former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and the contractor appointed under his administration.

A recent bridge collapse in Gadchiroli has ignited a political firestorm, with NCP SP legislator Rohit Pawar accusing Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his government of corruption and negligence. In response, the BJP has counter-attacked, asserting that the bridge was constructed during the MVA government's tenure, implicating former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and the contractor appointed under his administration.

NCP SP legislator Rohit Pawar has found a bridge collapse in a remote area of Maharashtra to corner chief minister Devendra Fadnavis this time. The Kothi-Koranar bridge over Bandiya river in Gadchiroli collapsed a few days ago. The bridge in Etapalli taluk, which connected several tribal villages, was inaugurated barely three years ago, on August 15, 2023 by the then Deputy Chief Minister Fadnavis and senior NCP minister and member of Gadchiroli royal family, Dharmaraobaba Atram.

Last week, Gadchiroli witnessed very heavy rainfall, over 200 mm in one day in particular. That led to massive flooding of Bandiya river and the pillars of this bridge were washed away due to surging river waters, which flew over the bridge. The construction cost of the bridge was ₹4 crore and it linked villages from Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

Gadchiroli Collector Avishant Panda has ordered immediate technical investigation into the collapse of the bridge. Local political activists have alleged that the bridge construction was given to a politically connected contractor from the neighbouring Chhattisgarh when local contractors were available.

Senior opposition leaders like NCP(SP) legislator Rohit Pawar targeted the Fadnavis government over the bridge collapse, when it had not even completed three years since inauguration. Pawar, targeting Fadnavis, posted on social media, “...See this photo of the bridge that you yourself inaugurated, and now look at the photo of it in its collapsed state. Back then, there were iron railings on the bridge. Today, not a single railing is visible here. This means that either these railings were temporarily installed just for the inauguration, or the work was so shoddy that not a single railing has survived... This is the pinnacle of corruption.”

Pawar said the PWD officials responsible for the incident should be suspended immediately. “And it is not just Gadchiroli, but across the entire state, in every department, cartels are being formed in this very manner and wholesale corruption is being carried out through tendering, so a thorough investigation into that as well is requested!” he urged Fadnavis.

Pawar targeted Fadnavis not just because he is chief minister or had inaugurated the bridge three years ago, more so because Fadnavis was guardian minister of Gadchiroli back then and continues to hold the position even now.

With Pawar targeting Fadnavis, the BJP had no option, but to launch a counter attack. It used its resources to dig out the entire details of the bridge construction file. Once that was available, Navnath Bann, former Marathi TV journalist-turned-BJP corporator and BJP’s answer to Shiv Sena UBT’s Sanjay Raut (Both Bann and Raut hold press briefings in the morning, Raut first and then Bann countering every point made by Raut) launched his counter offensive.

Bann pointed out that the bridge had been constructed in 2020-22 when MVA was in power in Maharashtra and Uddhav Thackeray was the chief minister. The contractor who constructed the bridge was appointed by that government and not Eknath Shinde government, which came to power in July 2022 after Shiv Sena split. Bann also dared Pawar to ask the question about corruption and work quality of the bridge to Uddhav Thackeray, who was the chief minister during the period.

Bann said that Pawar was a legislator of ruling coalition when the bridge was constructed. Pawar said that the government is comprised of contractors and middlemen, so he should answer how much percentage did Thackeray get for the bridge construction.

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