A BJP councillor from Ahmedabad’s Shahpur ward locked the office of an assistant city engineer on October 9, alleging that sewerage, water-supply and ward development works had remained incomplete for months. Councillor Jitendra Chouhan also demanded that the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation commissioner resign if the civic administration could not complete the work.
According to a report by Divya Bhaskar, Chouhan carried out the lockout at the municipal office near the Dudheshwar water tank. He said residents from the ward, which lies within Ahmedabad’s walled-city area, had repeatedly complained about water and drainage problems, but that their representations to civic officials had not produced action.
Chouhan alleged that project works had been pending for six to eight months. He also claimed that works proposed under councillors’ budget allocations had not been completed. The report did not include a response from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, the municipal commissioner or the assistant city engineer to the allegations.
The councillor described Shahpur as a working-class and slum-dominated area where several neighbourhoods faced continuing water and sewerage difficulties. He said residents frequently gathered at his office to raise complaints, leaving elected representatives under pressure to secure basic services from the civic administration.
Chouhan said he had raised the issue with officials and during committee meetings. He also said he had approached Dariapur MLA Kaushik Jain, but alleged that officials had not acted on the concerns. He stated that he had not yet submitted the matter to the mayor or the standing committee chairman.
The lockout was accompanied by a demand for greater scrutiny of municipal works. Chouhan alleged that irregularities could be taking place in road and footpath projects and called for a vigilance inquiry. These are allegations made by the councillor and were not independently established in the report.
He further warned that another municipal office could be locked the following day if the pending works were not addressed. The action comes despite the BJP having controlled the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation for about two decades, according to the report, making the dispute an internal challenge to the functioning of the civic administration rather than only an opposition-led protest.
The immediate issue is now whether the corporation will respond to the claims about delayed projects, identify the status of ward-budget works and address the reported water and sewerage complaints in Shahpur. Divya Bhaskar’s report did not specify the value of the pending works, the number of affected households, the reasons for the delays or any timeline announced by the civic administration.
