The opposition Congress in Gujarat came down heavily on Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, saying he needs to own moral responsibility for the "security lapse," which resulted in 16 serial blasts killing 45 people and injuring over 145 in Ahmedabad.

"Modi used to say that everything is fine in his state and he had the highest security in place to fight terrorism. In spite of his tall claims, serial blasts rocked Ahmedabad, which was on high alert at that time. It is high time that Modi take moral responsibility for the security lapse," AICC general secretary and Gujarat incharge Rajiv Shukla, said.

"Vilasrao Deshmukh (Maharashtra CM) took moral responsibility for the local train blasts (in 2006). Then, why is Modi criticising the Centre for giving vague intelligence reports or warnings? Intelligence warnings cannot state the exact date, time and place of attack," Shukla said.

"It is common sense that when there were blasts elsewhere in the country a day before, all metros and important cities are put on high alert. The state has to act accordingly and tighten its security instead of blaming somebody else," he added.

Shukla also criticised Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha L K Advani for demanding stringent anti-terror laws to fight terrorism.

"Enacting a law does not prevent the crime from happening. It is the effective implementation of the law that can prevent acts of terror. The laws that exists at present are strong enough to fight terrorism," Shukla said.

"Advaniji talked about POTA. It is a fact that terror strikes took place on Akshardham, Red Fort and Raghunath Mandir, while POTA was in force. So, by enacting a law we cannot prevent terrorism," Shukla said.

An AICC delegation comprising Shukla himself, B K Hariprasad, Imran Kidwai and Shankarsinh Waghela, visited the blast victims. Meanwhile, the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh each to the families of the dead.