Editorial
A tale-tell bridge
Those responsible must be held to account
In a country where multi-storied buildings collapse without warning with alarming regularity, that a bridge would be short-lived may not come as a surprise. Yet, the sense of outrage is quite palpable when one learns of a bridge completed only six months back in Mohanganj union in the district of Kurigram came crumbling down.
Needless to say, it has put thousands of habitants of the union under great deal of distress. The bridge did not serve the purpose for which it was meant and yet public fund has been spent, or rather misused in this instance. It needs to be mentioned that the bridge had partly collapsed only a month's of its completion, ostensibly due to the flooding of the dying river on which the bridge was built. And apparently the second phase of flood was the cause of its complete collapse.
While one must appreciate the fact that the bridge was built within the specified time, since nothing gets done on time in our country, but the contractor is blameworthy for coming out with the most ludicrous of pretexts for the collapse -- washing away of the soil from underneath the bridge. But is not that the character of rivers, where the soil is constantly in a state of flux and the design feature is supposed to factor in these fundamentals?
It goes without saying that the manner in which the bridge under discussion was built is fairly representative of the way many such bridges are constructed in our country with the hope that nature would come in as handy excuse for the deliberate lacunae in the work. The approach section of the bridge was left unfilled. And as per the contractor, that could not be done due to early floods and heavy rains. That being the case, how can anyone, least of all the project implementation officer, claim that the construction of the bridge was done as per schedule, and that too when the connecting approaches were also left incomplete? And it seems quite incomprehensible that a bridge would be built without soil test as was done in this case and the UNO was quite ignorant about it. And how could the payment be made for work that was only half done?
The only impression we get from this episode is that the procedure for rural construction is rather lax and there is little administrative oversight over these projects. It is a case of misuse of public fund, and no matter the amount, all those responsible for it must be held to account for loss of scarce public resource.
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