Ahmedabad: Citizens may be tripping over potholes, but AMC leaders are stumbling over excuses. A bizarre explanation for the city’s crumbling roads surfaced during a heated Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) meeting on Monday, when a BJP councillor claimed that a white-topped road had broken not due to faulty construction or monsoon damage, but due to the “evil eye”.The remark came from Mahadev Desai, former chairman of the road and building committee, in response to criticism from Congress councillors about potholes and cave-ins across the city. “Even the white-topped road in Nava Vadaj has cracked,” pointed out opposition leader Shehzad Khan Pathan. “And the BJP councillor says it is because of the evil eye. That’s not superstition; that’s a cover-up for corruption.”Pathan said that between June 1 and July 19 this year, citizens had filed 10,514 online road-related complaints, including 1,478 about sinkholes and 7,585 about damaged roads. “That’s an average of 215 road complaints a day,” he said, accusing the AMC of failing both with older asphalt roads and its newer white-topping initiative.Desai’s explanation prompted laughter from fellow BJP councillors in the general body meeting.The debate didn’t stop at roads. The opposition flagged 7,540 complaints about waterlogging, despite crores being spent on the city’s stormwater network. Standing committee chairperson Devang Dani downplayed the concerns, saying, “There are 48 wards in the city. Four to five waterlogging complaints per ward is normal.”Adding to the pressure, Gomtipur councillor Iqbal Sheikh quoted Gujarat minister Jagdish Vishwakarma, who recently admitted in front of BJP leaders that waterlogging in his area had remained unresolved for 15 years. “Even the minister acknowledged the issue. I thank him for at least being honest,” Sheikh said.The session saw tense exchanges between Congress and BJP members as regarding the issues of road damage and waterlogging.
