Flyover collapse in Kolkata, killed 25 people and injured more than 80 on Thursday. (File Photo)
A day after the flyover collapse in Kolkata, which killed 25 people and injured more than 80, the Mamata Banerjee government found itself on the backfoot, following the comment of its one of its own senior leaders.
During a visit to the spot, Sudip Banerjee, the lawmaker from the area, said the locals had earlier told him that the flyover design was flawed and he had told the government about it. But nothing was done as half the work had been completed.
The opposition lost no time in hitting back. "Is government money more important than the lives of the common man?" questioned Adhir Chowdhury, state Congress chief.
Trinamool lawmaker Derek O'Brien dismissed the charges. In a column for NDTV, he wrote the flyover project was a "poison pill we inherited".
"Even after we came to power, the contractor missed many deadlines and milestones. A large portion of the work was already completed, so to unilaterally cancel the contract would have also meant getting into a long drawn out legal quagmire," he wrote.
It was Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who set the political blame game rolling hours after the mishap, saying the project was sanctioned by the previous Left government.
The company in charge of the project, the IVRCL, was blacklisted after 2011 by central agencies and state governments, pointed out the Left's municipal affairs minister, Mr Ashok Bhattacharya. "Why did Ms Banerjee not stop the project then?"
The CPM further claimed Ms Banerjee had pushed the IVRCL to hurry the project, so it could be inaugurated before the Assembly polls beginning on Monday.
The BJP also attacked Ms Banerjee. "The CPM proposed the project and Mamata Banerjee continued it. The Trinamool can't shirk responsibility," Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said in Kolkata.
Mr Derek O'Brien dismissed the opposition's allegations as pre-poll politics.