Last Updated on May 21, 2021 at 2:39 pm
The collapse of an under construction bridge on river Jhelum in the summer capital, Srinagar has unmasked the deep-rooted corruption in Kashmir.
Though no one was hurt but many have started comparing this embarrassing incident with the incident that took place in Bihar where a portion of Sattarghat bridge on Gandak River in Gopalganj district collapsed.
On July 16, 2020, the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar was exposed after a bridge, part of a Rs 264-crore infrastructure project inaugurated just a month ago, was washed away by a swollen Gandak river at Gopalganj district. The bridge connects Gopalganj district with Saran and East Champaran districts, reducing the distance between Motihari and Chhapra by 45 kms. In 2017, a minister in Nitish Kumar’s cabinet had blamed rats for making holes in the embankments for weakening the structures and allowing river water breach through them, thus resulting in floods in Bihar.
The Bihar incident is being compared with Kashmir. A senior official said “In Bihar the bridge had at least survived till its inauguration but here in Kashmir it collapsed even before that and thus exposes that the level of corruption in Kashmir is even higher, unfortunately though.” Lt Governor Manoj Sinha is taking steps to end the menace of corruption in J&K that is unending since decades of misrule of successive governments.
