Olympics ready? Overflowing gutters in Amit Shah's high profile constituency: Vejalpur, beyond

By Rajiv Shah 

A few days ago, I was talking to a close acquaintance who used to live in Bawla, a small town about 35 km west of Ahmedabad. It's an industrial hub with rice processing mills, cotton ginning units, and pharmaceutical companies. The acquaintance, from a very ordinary middle-class background, lived there because his son worked in one of the major pharmaceutical units nearby. However, he recently moved to a housing society in Ahmedabad, and I asked him why.

"There are several reasons for this. While the house we rented in Bawla was quite good, and the neighbors were very helpful, we faced a major problem when stepping out to reach the main road. The gutter lines would invariably overflow, and we often had to walk through dirty water to reach the outer main road," he said.

I asked him whether the local people had complained to the authorities, given that such a situation was tarnishing the industrial hub’s reputation, and his reply puzzled me. He said, "Bawla is part of Union Home Minister Amit Shah's Lok Sabha constituency, Gandhinagar. People here tell me that raising local issues would embarrass him. One of them even warned me that if the issue of gutter overflow is raised, one could face persecution..."

I was reminded of this conversation as residents in my housing society in Vejalpur, Ahmedabad, which also falls under Amit Shah's constituency, are experiencing a similar predicament: the gutter next to several blocks has been overflowing for the past several days, forcing people to wade through dirty water to reach the main road. Worse, senior citizens are facing an added hardship—sewage water has leaked into the lifts of at least eight apartment blocks, leaving them no choice but to take the stairs whenever they need to go up.

I have since learned that this is not a problem isolated to my housing society. An inner road connecting several housing societies in what is known as Bakeri City—less than a kilometer from where I live—is also experiencing the same issue. People have shared photographs and video clips of the situation on social media. In fact, more informed residents have lodged complaints with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and posted updates about their complaints online.

AMC's response to all complainants has been cryptic: "Your complaint is registered and forwarded to the concerned department. Please quote token number … in future communication." Others have pointed out that this is a serious "health hazard" and urged all residents to flood AMC with complaints. Someone mentioned that he had spoken to the area's "honorable MLA," Amit Thakkar, about resolving the problem but did not disclose Thakkar’s response.

During my morning stroll, while avoiding the inside road in my society where gutter water is overflowing, an elderly neighbor told me that he had spoken to the society management. The response he received was that the problem was beyond their control. AMC has been carrying out repair work a kilometer away for over a month but has been unable to identify the issue, which is now affecting the entire area.

The neighbor further revealed, "When the MLA representing the area, Amit Thakkar, was asked to intervene, he said, 'Better contact local AMC corporator Jayesh Trivedi.'" I jokingly asked, "And why not Amit Shah?" His reply was, "Our home minister has too many problems on his hands, ranging from Pahalgam to Bastar. This is a very small issue for him", regretting, "It seems it will take a week to solve the problem. We wouldn't be able to use lift."

I then approached a senior reporter from a leading Gujarati daily who lives in the area, and his response was: "It's too minor an issue to take to a higher authority for resolution." Finally, I spoke with a journalist from a news portal, and his response was more encouraging: "This seems to be a significant issue affecting the entire area. I will speak to a TV journalist, have them take footage, and interview some affected residents. Hopefully, that will help."

I was left wondering: Is this how we are going to empower Ahmedabad as the next Olympics destination?