To ensure road safety ahead of the monsoon season, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has placed mannequins dressed as traffic marshals to guide the public. At least four mannequins with fluorescent orange were placed at Panchwati and Panjrapol areas of the city on Tuesday. The AMC said such mannequins will be placed at work sites, diversions and accident-prone areas to warn and guide motorists. The AMC said that priority will be given to places where road repair works take place.
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, more than 50,000 participants took part in the ‘2026 BAPS Charities Spirit of Service Walk-Run’, held in over 100 cities across North America this spring. Each city organised its own walk-run to promote volunteerism and support local charitable causes, a statement said. Together, these events turned parks, town squares, and community centers into hubs of civic engagement and pride. Families participated alongside fire chiefs, members of Congress, mayors, and community advocates. The ‘America250’ initiative directly benefited more than 90 organisations, including first responders, food banks and cancer research groups throughout the US and Canada, said the statement.
Timely Intervention
A swift move by Congress MLA from Jamalpur in Khadia, Imran Khedawala, helped save a life. While returning from an event in Shahibaug, Khedawala spotted a young man climbing up a metal railing on the Dadhichi bridge. Quickly realising what was about to happen, the legislator asked his security guard to rush towards the man and stop him from jumping into the Sabarmati River. As the security guard stood holding the man’s foot, others crossing the bridge too joined. “He kept saying that he would take the extreme step. I tried to make him understand that I will help resolve whatever issue he was facing,” Khedawala said on Friday. With the help of others, the youth was brought down and handed over to the local police for counselling.
Driving Opinion
Speaking at the launch of the government-backed Bharat Taxi service in 14 cities across Gujarat, Jayen Mehta invoked an old journalistic adage to underline the role of drivers as barometers of public sentiment. He was addressing the gathering after Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched Bharat Taxi operations in 14 cities across Gujarat on Saturday.
Mehta said, “An English writer once said that if you want to know the opinion of a country, listen to its taxi drivers,” adding that he hoped conversations in cabs across India would increasingly revolve around development and governance.
He said, “I would like to say… Now on, whenever any of our friends from the media travel in any vehicle across the country, the conversations they hear will be about development and about good governance by the government.”
Mehta, who heads Sahakar Taxi Cooperative Limited, the cooperative behind the government-backed Bharat Taxi service, said the platform aimed at empowering drivers by making them stakeholders in the mobility ecosystem rather than merely service providers.
Parking, Planning
Aimed at making the traffic system in the city more efficient and reduce the pressure of unauthorised parking on the roads, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s (AMC’s) ‘Comprehensive Policy 2026 to Transform Traffic, Parking Encroachment, Road Safety and Cattle Management Across the City’ received a “positive response”. As part of this scheme, a private hotel in the Sola area has submitted an online application-Parking Availability and Sharing Consent Form-to the AMC for relief in property tax. The hotel has opened a total of nearly 8,300 square metres of parking space in its two basements for free use by the citizens. This parking facility has a capacity to park approximately 150 cars and 50 two-wheelers, the AMC said. As per the AMC provisions under the policy, the unit concerned is given relief in property tax based on the area provided for parking to citizens free of cost. As per the estimates, the hotel is likely to get relief worth around Rs 26 lakh in property tax during the year under this scheme. Calling it an “inspiration” for other commercial units, the AMC hopes more that hotels, shopping malls, hospitals, theater and other commercial establishments make their parking spaces available free of cost to the citizens, thus reducing pressure of parking on the city roads and smoother traffic movement.
From NY to SoU
When a daredevil “rooftoppers” couple climbed the spire of New York’s Empire State Building to unfurl a banner and stage a proposal, they probably weren’t expecting tourism departments half a world away to seize the moment. But that’s exactly what happened when Gujarat Tourism responded with tongue-in-cheek swagger. In an Instagram post, the department said, “If anything deserves the spotlight, it’s the Statue of Unity, the world’s tallest statue.” The accompanying AI-generated reel took it a step further, imagining the couple dangling beside the colossal figure of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel with a sign declaring – “We are too short for now of the Iron Man of India.” The message is clear – Why risk felony charges climbing 1,454 feet when the Statue of Unity (SoU), 597 feet taller, is already doing the heavy lifting.
The AMC said that priority will be given to places where road repair works take place. 
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