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Journalism of Courage
AHMEDABAD, Sept 30: Surendra Patel, the all-powerful chairman of the steering committee of the ruling BJP in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) was left defenceless amid scathing attack by the Opposition at the general board meeting on Wednesday for his adverse views on the working and integrity of town planning department officials.
Patel had alleged that the town planning department survived on corruption and was even giving the corporators a bad name.
In the normal course, BJP corporators pounce upon the Opposition for any attempt to embarrass the party on any issue. However, on the issue of impact fee, the BJP leaders, including firebrand Bhavnaben Dave, and the shouting brigade kept mum. A feeble defence came from Tulsi Dabhi but he was not taken seriously in view of his jovial mood.
The broadside was launched by Hasan Khan Pathan who questioned Surendra Patel’s locus standi of “openly and publicly passing adverse comments” on officials’ integrity. Pathan said this would demoralise the officials who were trying to steer clear the corporation of many problems despite interference from the elected wing. He alleged that over 80 per cent BJP corporators were harassing small-time builders and contractors by putting civic security at their construction sites and later getting it lifted after “clinching the deal”. He claimed senior officials had told him of their helplessness.
Seeing the situation going out of hand despite a fractured presence of the Opposition (the rebels stayed off), mayor Joitaram Patel cut short zero hour to 30 minutes after he realised that the BJP had failed to counter the Congress allegation that “fissures are visible when Surendra Patel finds no supporter for his pro-impact fee views”. Independent Khurshid Syed said AMC had no business to talk of policy fixation on issues concerning Central legislations.
He said the impact fee collection came under the Urban Land Ceiling Act which was beyond the purview of AMC policy-makers. He said it was wrong to allege corruption in the town planning department as the problem was rampant. Later, when his comment on the impact fee was sought, the mayor remained non-committal, by neither supporting nor opposing it. But, standing committee chief Dharmendra Shah was more open. He said he and the municipal commissioner were “getting along well”.
