Kantilal Amrutiya, BJP leader and former MLA of Morbi, jumped into the Machchu river to save the lives of people after the bridge collapsed earlier yesterday, a video of which has gone viral on the internet.
In the video, Kantilal is seen swimming toward the middle of the river where the bridge had collapsed, plunging people on it into the waterway below.
Even as several agencies started rescue operations to evacuate people stranded on the collapsed bridge and others who fell in the river, the former MLA took it upon himself to help the marooned people and get them back to safety.
Morbi bridge collapse
On Sunday, October 30, 2022, a suspension bridge over the Machchhu River in Morbi, Gujarat, collapsed, claiming at least 60 lives and injuring numerous persons. The bridge, which was about a century old, had just been reopened following renovations. Reportedly, around 400 people were on the bridge when the incident happened, as the ancient bridge could not bear the weight.
The pre-Independence cable-stayed bridge, known as the Jhulto Pool, was regarded as a marvel of British engineering and one of Morbi’s top tourist destinations. The bridge was reopened after renovations during Diwali, and there were a lot of people visiting it. On Sunday, so many people arrived on the bridge that the structure could not bear the weight and it collapsed into the river below.
Who is Kantilal Amrutiya?
Kantilal Shivlal Amrutiya was born on 8 March 1962 in a middle-class Patel community at Jetpar in Morbi district. Even as a young boy in the 1970s, he served in the rehabilitation of victims during the floods caused by the failure of the Morbi Dam. He completed his schooling at VC Technical High School, Morbi. As a young man, he joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, a student organization, and became involved in the anti-corruption Navnirman movement. After working as a full-time member of the organization, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Kanti Amritya was an RSS volunteer during the early years of his social life. He undertook the challenging task of energizing the party workers at the local level. Together with colleagues and local businessmen, Kantilal decided to build a strong cadre of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Morbi district, Saurashtra and Kutch. In the early days, he started out as a member of Morbi’s municipality and taluka panchayat, and his maternal uncle Amubhai Aghara was leading at the constituency level.
Kantilal took charge of the party cadre at Morbi in 1995 and was elected as MLA from the constituency for 5 terms. In December 2012, Kanabhai was elected for the 5th time in the Gujarat state elections. He is known as Kanabhai by the people of Morbi and surrounding areas. He has worked in agriculture and industry.
However, later amid the Patidar agitation, Amrutiya lost his seat to Congress’ Brijesh Merja. In 2020, Merja resigned from Congress and joined the BJP, and was elected as MLA from the Morbi constituency.