On the gloomy evening of October 30, at least 140 people — including 47 children and 50 women — paid the price for negligence of a private company, local authorities and the state government, by losing their lives. Floating slippers and shoes — small and big — bear evidence to the 'homicide'. Even the mighty, double-engine government was not good enough to prevent the mishap. The 140-year-old hanging bridge collapsed into the Machchhu river a couple of days after it was reopened on the occasion of the Gujarati New year, following a long hiatus of two years. A local company that renovated the bridge is now at the centre of investigation. It is reported to have acquired specialisation in small products like Ajanta clocks. In most likelihood, the company may have erred in carrying out its responsibilities properly. However, while it is being painted as the main villain, the local authorities and the state government at large cannot escape the question of accountability. An immediate justification should come along as to why, in the first place, the tender of renovation was granted to a company that lacks expertise in the domain — irrespective of the proof of crime against the company. Secondly, the inexcusable silence of administration even as throngs of people flocked to the tourist spot — openly flouting laid out safety norms and prescriptions — was disturbing. The state government has, almost in a customary fashion, granted a compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the families of those killed and Rs 50,000 to those who have been injured. Furthermore, the PMO has also announced a relief of Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister National Relief Fund for the family members of deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured. Though unavoidable, such compensations will hardly bring any significant respite to the kins of the departed ones. Monetary compensation of any scale is no match to the unfathomable loss suffered by the people. For the people of Morbi, the incident must have rekindled the horrible memories of 1979 inundation, killing around 2,500 people, as per rough estimates. The most important thing at this moment is the question of accountability. Without any delay, the involved stakeholders must come out with honest answers. As late as this, there is hardly any convincing word from the renovating company or even the government. Municipal officials claimed that no permission was sought from the civic body before reopening the bridge to the public. This, however, is no excuse for their own breach of accountability. The bridge was a tourist spot and the municipality must have taken timely notice of the flouting of rules. The mishap also exposes the futility of the much-touted Gujarat model of government. With assembly polls just around the corner, and Arvind Kejriwal giving a spirited fight in the political contest to the incumbents, the BJP government in Gujarat is finding itself in a difficult situation. The opposition has rightly taken the government to the task. The Chief Minister of the state, who is also the Urban Development Minister, is facing the heat. Congress leader Pawan Khera went on to the extent of demanding sacking of the CM. Investigations are on. The Gujarat government has appointed a five-member committee of bureaucrats and police officers to probe the matter. Several arrests have been made so far but, apart from being an individual crime incident, the Gujarat mishap is an indicator of a structural faultline. Many more catastrophes may be waiting in the wings if timely course correction is not made. Ushering in development and creating an optics of development are two separate things. Optics may earn political dividends for some time, but only at the cost of harming the people. If allegations of profit-oriented government-private nexus happen to be true in the present case, the Morbi bridge collapse might just be the tip of the iceberg. There is a need for detailed investigation around the kind of materials used in the renovation of the bridge. The overall collapse of the bridge — rather than some planks of it — prima facie indicates uniform inadequacy of the linking material used to join the planks with verticals hanging from the horizontal cables that have been found in their place after the incident. Notably, the wooden planks were replaced with aluminium ones by the company in question — essentially hinting that links would also have been changed. Investigation has to be quick and reports need to be made public by the earliest. Parallelly, audits of similar structures also need to be carried out. Lives of people is the highest cost a nation can pay, and profit of a few is the last thing to be earned in exchange.