The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation is set to organise a public garba event at Kankaria Lakefront on October 24, according to a report by Nav Gujarat Samay, at a time when the civic body is facing questions over outstanding contractor payments and expenditure on events and discretionary services.
The report said the event would be held on Saturday at the lakefront, which is one of Ahmedabad’s major public recreation spaces. It also said that a separate garba programme would be organised at Bhadra Kali Temple Chowk on October 26, with vendors at Bhadra Plaza expected to be moved for one day after being persuaded to vacate the area.
According to the report, the Kankaria event will involve work by the publicity department as well as other municipal departments. It alleged that several works worth lakhs of rupees could be assigned to selected contractors and traders on the basis of quotations, without open tenders. The report did not provide the estimated total cost of the event, names of contractors or copies of tender and quotation documents.
The spending allegations were linked by the report to the AMC’s wider financial position. It said the municipal corporation had been experiencing financial pressure and that several contractors were visiting the accounts department to seek payment of pending bills. It also criticised the approval of large development tenders and the issuing of work orders while expenditure on festivals and other events continued.
These claims were presented as criticism of the civic administration’s priorities rather than as findings from an audit or official investigation. The report attributed the event details and some of the spending-related information to municipal sources, but it did not include a response from the AMC explaining the event’s budget, procurement method, funding source or expected public attendance.
Kankaria Lakefront has traditionally hosted the Kankaria Carnival in December, an annual public event associated with recreation and entertainment for residents. The proposed garba programme would add another civic event to the lakefront calendar, although the source report did not specify whether the event would be free, whether entry restrictions would apply or how the venue would be managed during the programme.
The procurement question is significant because different municipal departments may incur separate costs for publicity, venue preparation, lighting, security, sound, sanitation and crowd management. Without a consolidated budget or a public procurement record, the overall financial commitment cannot be established from the available information.
The report also said that municipal sources acknowledged that festivals, gatherings and religious programmes had been introduced by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led civic administration. It referred to the annual Mayor Vijay Padma Garba at Bhadra Kali Temple Chowk as an established programme.
The immediate matters requiring clarification are the AMC’s approved expenditure, the department-wise allocation of costs, the procurement route used for each service and the arrangements for vendors and visitors at both venues. The source report did not state when the civic body would publish these details or identify an official deadline for the event preparations.
