Green neglect: Ahmedabad municipal corporation sees red

Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) bosses on Saturday suspended six officials of the parks and garden department, including the director of the department, Jignesh Patel.
Municipal commissioner IP Gautam had placed an inquiry against parks and garden department officials after receiving frequent complaints of lapses in handling tree plantation in the city.

The suspended officials include Ganpat Kadikar, Amrut Chaudhary, Devendra Desai, Bharti Patel and Dilip Patel. AMC officials, on Saturday, appointed Pathik Shah - administrative officer at VS General Hospital, as new director of the parks and garden department.

Shah will report to deputy municipal commissioner for parks and garden department, SK Langa. To fill the vacant posts in the department after the suspension, the civic body has also put six assistant engineers and six technical supervisors on deputation in the department. Moreover, the AMC will also start recruiting officials in the said department.

It was during a general board meeting that the leader of opposition in the AMC raised questions, citing a few examples of malpractices in tree plantation as well as in fake registration of water tankers to show watering of plants. He also spoke of the lapse in taking care of saplings after plantation.

Incidentally, in that meeting, BJP corporator Amit Shah had also agreed with Baxi about negligence in maintaining trees. Baxi reacting to the suspension of the officials said it was the right thing to do.

"No one bothered to check if the water tankers actually watered the plants. Lakhs of trees dried up as responsible officials never bothered to check. There was a big scam that was going on in the parks and garden department. We hope, with new officials taking charge- the situation will improve," said Baxi.