By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 15 Jul: Assembly Speaker, Ritu Khanduri Bhushan, met Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami in connection with the collapse of the bridge built on Malan River under the Kotdwar assembly constituency.
During the meeting, the Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha said that the bridge built by the Public Works Department in the year 2010 with an amount of about 1250 lakh on the Malan River in the area collapsed in just 13 years. Due to this 38-year-old Haldukhata, Kotdwar resident Prasanna Mohan Dabral died; father of a 06-year-old boy and a 03-year-old girl and 02 other people were injured, which is very sad and disappointing for everyone.
Khanduri said that from time to time the local officials to the top officials were informed through telephone, meeting personally and by correspondence that uncontrolled mining was being done in Malan, Shukra and Kha rivers in Kotdwar, due to which these rivers were affected. Naturally, there is a threat to the existence of the built bridges, as a result of which the bridge built on the Malan River got demolished in just 13 years. This bridge connects Kotdwar and Bhabar. Along with the death of Dabral and injuries to two persons due to the bridge thousands of families living in Sigdi Jhandichowd, Kalalghati and Kanvashram have lost contact with Kotdwar administrative headquarters, the industrial area may also have to suffer heavy loss because the lifeline of this area is Malan bridge.
In view of the adverse impact on the industrial sector including thousands of residents of the Kotdwar Assembly Constituency, the Assembly Speaker urged the Chief Minister to conduct a high-level investigation of related departments from the Vigilance Department during the mining period and to take strict action against the guilty officials.
She talked about the construction of a 300-meter span double lane RCC bridge on the Malan River between Kalalghati-Mawakot road in the Kotdwar area. She also asked to demolish the closed suspension bridge at Kumbhi Choudh.
The Chief Minister agreed to all the demands of the Assembly Speaker and talked about getting the bridge collapsed through Vigilance, along with asking for the demolition of the closed bridge and widening the alternative route Mavkot-Kanvashram for the movement of Kotdwar residents and talked about making it easy.
