Sankalan Samiti meeting turns stormy

The political sparring ahead of the civic polls took an ugly turn on Saturday.

Upset with the civic infrastructure and the failure of the BJP-ruled Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to solve citizens' problems expeditiously, Congress MLAs gathered at the civic body's Usmanpura office for a Sankalan Samiti meeting.

They met AMC commissioner IP Gautam and, following heated arguments, offered him a set of bangles for his allegedly failure to execute various infrastructure projects.

Congress MLA from Shahpur Gyasuddin Sheikh said they made a representation about the failure of projects like stormwater drainage line and Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) among others which had caused waterlogging and craters in many places.

"Gautam did not listen to our complaint. At a time when citizens are facing severe civic issues, the AMC officials are busy serving the state government and managing Garib Kalyan Melas," said Sheikh.

He accused Gautam of badly handling the work. "So we offered him bangles," said Sheikh. Other Congress MLAs like Sailesh Parmar, Farooque Sheikh and Sabir Kabliwala were also present at the meeting.

"In a mega city, if people have to face such problems, it is a shame on the AMC," said Sheikh.

The official communiqué from the four MLAs present at the meeting said that the AMC bosses do not print Congress members' names in its programmes.

"This shows that the commissioner works at the BJP's behest," reads the message.