The Congress on Tuesday alleged that the Morbi bridge collapse incident highlighted the cronyism being perpetuated in Gujarat, alleging that the model of development being followed in the state was of "extreme failure".

The Opposition party alleged that the Gujarat model of development is "corrupted, distorted and concocted".

"The model is that you benefit a few industrialists and leave behind the rest and that leads to a lot of social and economic disparities," Congress spokesperson Anshul Avijit said at a press conference at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi.

Gujarat today is characterised by gross mismanagement and corruption, he alleged.

The Morbi incident highlighted something which was a degraded form of cronyism in which precedence was given to sheer profiteering, everything else was compromised and people's lives were sacrificed, he alleged.

"We want to ask the basic question, where is the SIT report regarding that terrible tragedy. The High Court of Gujarat took suo motu cognizance of the matter and asked the SIT to submit its report by November 14 but it has not done it so far," Avijit said.

He alleged that the SIT in Gujarat is a complete eyewash when it comes to any investigative matter.

"There have been SITs which have been instituted for a number of cases there, they haven't reached any conclusion. This is the story of Gujarat and the Morbi tragedy highlighted that story of cronyism that a watchmaker is given an engineering contract," he said.

The Gujarat High Court last week took suo motu cognisance of the Morbi bridge collapse tragedy and issued notices to the state government and local authorities and also sought a status report in the matter by November 14.

The British-era suspension bridge on the Machchhu river in Morbi collapsed on October 30, claiming 135 lives. The bridge was thrown open for the public on October 26 after seven months of repair work by a private firm.?
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