Bridge collapse kicks off political slugfest in West Bengal

A day after the collapse of a portion of Majerhat bridge in the West Bengal capital, a political slugfest erupted with the opposition parties on Wednesday accusing the TMC government of "neglecting" repair and maintenance of bridges and only painting various installations blue and white.

The Trinamool Congress, however, dubbed the allegations baseless and said the state government had taken enough steps for repair of old and new bridges, which were in a dismal condition during the Left Front rule.

A section of a 50-year-old Majerhat bridge on the arterial Diamond Harbour Road in south Kolkata collapsed Tuesday evening, snuffing out one life, trapping several people and crushing many vehicles.

Mukul Roy, a former close aide of Chief Minister Mamata Banejee and now a BJP leader said, "Painting the city blue and white, the favourite colours of Banerjee, tops the agenda of the PWD department. The repair and maintenance of bridges took a back seat."
BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said, "Didi (Mamata Banerjee) is dreaming of becoming prime minister and her younger brothers (TMC leaders and ministers) are looting the state in the name of syndicate business. She should keep aside her prime ministerial ambitions and pay attention to the state."
The minister said it would be wrong to make sweeping comments on this issue to score political brownie points. "The engineers are inspecting on what actually led to the incident."