ગુજરાતી
English
BJP leaders cover their eyes with the lotus flower
Dilip Patel
Ahmedabad, September 19, 2025
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s (CAG) March 2022 report on the Housing and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board was presented in the Gujarat Assembly in September 2025.
Municipal bodies were collecting crores of rupees in unaccounted cess.
In October 2020, the Board disbursed ₹52 crore to seven municipal corporations, including Ahmedabad, under the Corona Suraksha Kavach Yojana to provide protective measures during the pandemic.
But by March 2023, ₹36 crore remained unaccounted for, and no action was taken to recover the unused grant of ₹12.50 crore from the three corporations.
The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation failed to deposit ₹72 crore collected between March 2021 and March 2022.
The question then arises: objections have been raised previously regarding the double-accounting of citizens’ money in Ahmedabad city.
The 36th Mayor, Pratibha Jain, Deputy Mayor, Jatin Patel, Khadi Committee Chairman, Devang Dani, and seven former BJP mayors are responsible for these scams. Yet, no action has been taken against any of them or they have not been recalled.
Former BJP mayors – Kirit Parmar, Bijal Patel, Gautam Shah, Meenakshi Patel, Asit Vora, Kanaji Thakor, and Amit Shah – were mayors in 2008.
Correct expenditures are not being recorded in the account books.
In the five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25, 23,430 audit objections have been received, exposing corruption, irregularities, scams, and frauds by the BJP.
Of these, 4,556 objections, or 17 percent, have been resolved.
There are 4,594 audit objections, primarily from the Central Zone Engineer, 1,988 from the East Zone Engineer, 1,452 from the West Zone Engineer, 880 from the Central Zone Health Department, and 2,304 from the South Zone Tax Department. Crores of rupees of city residents are being wasted in these cases. These amounts could be recovered, yet BJP officials are not taking action. This indicates that BJP leaders are complicit in these irregularities. They are benefiting contractors and suppliers. The BJP has no interest in curbing corruption.
These details came to light during the Municipal Corporation Audit Department’s audit of various accounts, records, and vouchers. The Municipal Corporation Audit Department examines financial accounts and records of various accounts and issues audit objections where errors are found. These objections are to be resolved and settled. The audit objections have revealed scams, errors, and irregularities. Where is the system failing?
2025
Twenty contract IT professionals were found to be paid more than civil servants. They were paid a monthly salary of ₹3.24 lakh. The 20 IT professionals received a monthly salary of ₹31.54 lakh and an annual salary of ₹3.40 crore, totaling ₹17.00 crore over five years. Who are IT professionals? There is no cadre for IT professionals, and they are paid whatever they wish. BJP leaders are benefiting their favorites.
Two project managers are paid ₹36 lakh, one system analyst ₹1.71 lakh, three senior programmers ₹1.31 lakh, two website developers ₹87,000, and two mobile app developers ₹87,000.
Wrongful Property Taxes
More than 1,000 citizens in the city fell victim to a property tax scam. They had already paid their outstanding taxes, but are receiving repeated bills from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, some of which run into lakhs. This scam has been ongoing for nearly five years. A group of brokers or agents is suspected to be behind this scam. The login credentials of a Western Region employee were misused. The system was compromised using the employee’s login. The estimated cost of this scam is between ₹1.5 crore and ₹2 crore. The scam created the illusion of credit and debit card payments.
Ghost Toilet Scam
Over four years leading up to 2025, contractors were paid ₹2 crore for repairing the same toilet multiple times. The total number of toilets in the three wards is 218, but repair bills were raised for 1,431 toilets. Bills for the remaining 1,213 toilets were paid.
In Shahpur, Dariyapur, and Jamalpur wards, bills for 115 toilets and 466 toilets were paid, respectively. ₹4.60 lakh was paid to the North Gujarat Public Service Trust for 115 toilets. Repair costs of ₹40,000 per toilet were paid. In Dariyapur ward, the same trust was paid ₹18.64 lakh for 466 toilets.
In Jamalpur ward, ₹3.4 million was paid for the repair of 850 toilets.
2025 – Clinical Trials
A clinical trial scam occurred at VS Hospital. Dr. Devang Rana and Dr. Dhaivat Shukla deposited the clinical trial proceeds into their accounts. Devang Rana has been ordered to deposit ₹5 million with the corporation. 58 clinical trials were conducted. Doctors were paid ₹1.87 crore for the trials. Former superintendents Dr. Manish Patel and Dr. Devang Rana were responsible.
Waqf Board
By 2025, fake trustees of the Ahmedabad Waqf Board had illegally collected rent for 20 years on properties worth ₹100 crore. The property tax was disputed.
Ticket Scam
There was a scam involving the sale of printed tickets for the flower show in Ahmedabad. The server was down and visitors were asked to pay online.
In case of non-availability of tickets, an offline ticketing system was established. Tickets were printed for this purpose.
People brought tickets, even though the kits were not sold publicly.
A shocking case of theft of some of the more than 650,000 tickets produced in 2025 came to light. A company named 18 Creations was entrusted with printing tickets for the flower show at Heliconia Apartments in Thaltej. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation had printed 650,000 tickets, which were to be used as needed. 18 Creations printed the tickets and returned them to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation in a sealed box. 52 visitors were found to have 27 tickets priced at ₹70 and 25 tickets priced at ₹100.
Irregularities in 2023-24
Of the 7,508 objections received during 2023-24, 512 were resolved, but the controversy continued to escalate. BJP officials resolve objections as per their convenience. The 307-page audit report revealed serious irregularities, inexcusable misconduct, and financial scams.
Out of 7,508 audit objections, only 512 were resolved. The remaining 6,996 objections remained unanswered. Therefore, there is a strong possibility of a scam. Rampant corruption is occurring. BJP rulers are concealing this corruption. Corruption is rampant in projects. Public money is being used, but the BJP has failed to provide timely accounting.
In the Northern Region, 997 tax scams occurred, but they were able to respond to only 2 objections. The remaining 995 were concealed.
Out of 890 objections received by the Engineering Department of the Central Region, they failed to respond to even one.
In the Western Region, the Engineering Department responded to only 2 of 566 objections.
In the Northern Region, 4 out of 402 objections were resolved.
In the Southern Region, 79 out of 506 objections were resolved, with 427 pending.
In the Eastern Region, 53 out of 386 objections were resolved, with 333 pending.
In the Central Region, the Health Department had 457 objections, but none of them were resolved.
Recruitment Scam
Eight employees have been dismissed due to the recruitment scam. Candidates were placed on the merit list by manipulating their marks. The main accused in this scam is Pulkit C. Sathwara, the head clerk at the Central Office, against whom a police FIR has been filed.
The recruitment process conducted from January 1, 2021, to August 10, 2025, was investigated. During this period, written examinations were conducted by prestigious institutions such as GU, IIT, and IIM for more than 37 posts. These examinations resulted in a selection list of 2,786 candidates and a waiting list of 1,316 candidates. Selected candidates were appointed on a probationary basis at a fixed salary, as per rules. However, this action was taken after irregularities in the marks were discovered during the re-verification of the results.
A committee was formed to investigate all recruitment processes conducted from 2021 to 2025. A committee consisting of two Deputy Municipal Commissioners and three department head-level officials investigated recruitments from the past five years.
2024
A garbage scam has been ongoing in Ahmedabad for the past four years, involving allegations of corruption amounting to ₹100 crore. Garbage dumpsites were not cleaned for several years, but bills of ₹100 crore were raised. Under the Bharatiya Janata Party government, corruption is also taking place in the name of garbage in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. The government had promised to completely remove the Pirana dumping site. Yet, the garbage dump hasn’t been removed for the past 10 years. Despite paying contractors a whopping 25 crore rupees in a single year, very little work has been done. Corruption is not only wasting public money but also jeopardizing public health.
12 Years of Darkness
The Audit Department is not audited. The department, which demanded clarifications in 2024, is showing no interest in providing them. The Audit Department has not audited its own department’s expenses for more than 12 years. For unknown reasons, this process has been delayed for a long time. Details of expenditures on building a new office, furniture, and staff have also not been provided.
Money Vanished
90 rupees from outstanding tax bills have automatically disappeared from the books and computers. The outstanding amount is showing zero on the bill of an individual or company. Suspecting that the scam was perpetrated by hacking the password of the tax inspector’s computer, everyone was ordered to immediately change their passwords and check their files.
2022-2023
A total of 10,111 audit objections were submitted in the two-year period 2022-2023. Of the 8,632 audit objections, 17 percent, or 1,749, were resolved. The highest number of objections, 1,814, were received from the Central Zone Engineering Department, followed by 800 from the Eastern Zone Engineering Department.
2021-22
An amount of ₹139 crore spent in 2021-22 remains unaccounted for. ₹128.79 crore in outstanding advances to traders and contractors, and ₹10.65 crore in advance payments remain unaccounted for. Of the 6,632 audit objections, 5,758 were pending resolution.
2017
In the highly publicized 2017 road scam, engineering officers were fined ₹50,000 each, and chargesheets were filed in 2019. The officers’ pay increases were cut. In the third and final phase, 23 officers were given R.
Charge sheets were served. A retired judge was to be appointed to investigate. Seven additional engineer-level officials were served notices. Three of them were fined and acquitted. Three additional city engineers, Rakhi Trivedi, H.T. Mehta, and Amit Patel, were chargesheeted.
City Engineer Narendra K. Modi and Hitesh Contractor, in charge of the road project,
are prominent among them. Narendra Modi was promoted to the position of city engineer.
Deputy City Engineer P.A. Patel, who was holding the position of additional city engineer at the time, was also fined. The additional engineer officials were fined between ₹1.80 lakh and ₹2.25 lakh.
Both contractors have been blacklisted for irregularities such as the use of substandard materials and fraudulent billing.
Forty notices were issued to additional engineer officials and 41 to deputy engineer officials.
2009 to 2023
From 2009 to 2023, 37,624 audit objections were raised. Despite 200 letters written by the Chief Auditor to the Municipal Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, and departmental officers, the audit objections are not being resolved.
2013-14 Scams
Withdrawal accounts from 2010-11 are unavailable. ₹10.65 crore given as advances to contractors has not been disbursed since 2010-11. The 2013-14 annual audit report exposed kleptocracy, irregularities, and corruption in the Engineering Department due to collusion between contractors and the BJP. 4,507 objections were reported, primarily in the Accounts, Tax, and Engineering departments.
There is a discrepancy of over ₹1 crore between the accounting books and bank statements. The Audit Department has been commenting on the rent or property tax for cables laid by telephone and power companies like Tata, BSNL, Reliance, and Torrent Power for the past several years.
Mobile company tower rent or penalties have not been collected since 2002. In the South Zone alone, the rent for 200 towers is ₹1,000 per month. By 2013, there were over 1,000 such towers in the city. The BJP government is taking no action.
2008
Despite the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation having its own audit department and qualified staff to audit its accounts, a contract was awarded to a private chartered accountant firm, Manubhai & Company Limited, on October 16, 2008.
The JNNURM projects involved were worth crores of rupees. This outsourcing of audit work was against the provisions of the Bombay Provisional Municipal Corporation (BPMC) Act. A special auditor was appointed to oversee JNNURM operations. A new audit committee was formed. Dharmendra Solanki and the treasurer were given the contract to audit its financial operations and maintain the accounts. (Google translation from Gujarati from this website)
