The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s general meeting brought a series of citizen-facing concerns into focus on October 27, with opposition corporators raising questions about civic recruitment, street-light tenders, food safety inspections, drainage failures, water connections and the safety of commercial activity in residential areas.
Congress corporator Nirav Bakshi questioned the civic body’s outsourcing-based recruitment process, claiming that between 9,000 and 10,000 people had been hired through outsourcing while regular recruitment was repeatedly postponed. He also raised concerns over extensions given to more than 1,500 officers and employees after retirement, arguing that the practice affected employment opportunities for younger applicants. These claims were made during the general meeting and were reported by Divya Bhaskar.
The meeting also referred to the disappearance of a 10-year-old girl who reportedly fell into an open drain in Pirana. Bakshi described the incident as a criminal act and sought action against those responsible, noting that 17 days had passed without information about the child. The report also stated that similar incidents had occurred in the past, while the demand focused on fixing responsibility for the Pirana case.
Street-light procurement was another major point of contention. Bakshi alleged that the tender process was being structured in a way that could result in a single company receiving the contract. He sought cancellation of the tender and the issue of a fresh tender. The allegation was raised in the municipal meeting and was not independently established in the supplied report.
Congress corporators also questioned the Ahmedabad civic body’s food department. They alleged that inspections were being conducted but that effective action was not being taken against adulteration. They said the city had only one food laboratory and demanded laboratories in every municipal zone so that samples could be tested more quickly. The report did not provide the civic administration’s response to these specific allegations.
Concerns about basic services were raised in non-town-planning areas, particularly in Maktampura, which a corporator said was 65 per cent non-TP area. The demands included better primary services and action on recurring drainage overflows. Questions were also raised about civic gyms and swimming pools built at public expense and later operated under public-private partnership arrangements, where users were allegedly charged high fees.
Nadia Pathan, described in the report as a Gen-Z Congress corporator from Maktampura, raised problems at Aadhaar centres, saying server outages forced residents to wait in long queues before services became unavailable when their turns arrived. She sought Wi-Fi internet facilities at the centres. She also said residents who had paid for connections under the Nal Se Jal scheme were still waiting for them, even though the scheme was reportedly considered complete, and demanded a survey of pending connections.
In Khadia, corporator Birju Ben raised concerns about footpath encroachments, firecracker shops operating in residential areas and the approval of building-use permissions for such premises. She referred to earlier fires in the area and asked who would be responsible if another incident occurred. She also alleged that gold and silver furnaces were contributing to pollution without adequate attention from the civic health department.
Mayor Pratibha Jain reportedly told a corporator that the Ashantdhara issue fell under the state government rather than the municipal corporation, and advised that it be taken up with the state authorities. The meeting also drew attention to the absence of a formal opposition leader, with the report stating that Congress corporators’ interventions were considered less effective without one. The meeting’s immediate follow-up on the drainage incident, pending water connections, street-light tender and food laboratory demands was not detailed in the supplied report.
