ગુજરાતી
English
Ahmedabad, February 20, 2026
Informative and important points in the original debate between Jaynarayan Vyas and Mahesh Pandya.
Jaynarayan Vyas: Ahmedabad’s coming decade has been shaped by those who created such boards.
Children in the third grade are ranked sixth in the country in terms of education. Students in the sixth grade are second from last in the country. Students in the ninth grade are the last in the country.
Privatization of education is for their benefit. Politicians’ sons study abroad.
This is a budget of chaos and disorder. Ahmedabad gets water from the Narmada, which will stop soon.
Mahesh Pandya
This is the election budget of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has a debt of ₹984 crore, which will now reach ₹1232 crore in 2027.
For years, there has been talk of turning Ahmedabad into Shimla, Hong Kong. They’ve been saying for years that they want to build a high-tech city. Even if an 80 crore rupee flyover is built in Bhopal, there’s no way to proceed further, so it’s failing.
Poor people live on government grain. They can’t go to the garden because of the fees.
They say this is an environmental budget.
The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation planted 10 million trees in five years. If we count trees for a population of 8 million, there should be one tree for every foot. If we count in some wards, there were 1.6 million trees. If we conduct a social audit of the trees being planted, we can get a more accurate estimate. Trees that cause colds and coughs due to pollen are planted on the riverfront.
The budget includes a provision for flood monitoring at a cost of 200 crore rupees. They say 15 lakes and 7 ponds will be developed.
In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled that a list of lakes should be compiled within three months after an assessment. It also stipulated that ponds that had filled up should be considered wetlands. At that time, 150 ponds were counted. Now, 37 of them are missing.
Regarding the ponds not filling up with water, officials say that the bottom of the pond has broken down, preventing rainwater from accumulating. Now, the Vastrapur pond has been built at a cost of ₹10 crore. The Chief Minister inaugurated it once again. Seven such ponds are to be redeveloped and will be inaugurated again.
Eleven ponds have been connected to each other through water transport.
A new concept of creating sponge ponds has been announced. The land where water is stored is called a sponge pond.
A new drain is to be constructed with a loan of ₹3500 crore from the World Bank.
Pollution and traffic problems have increased. Ahmedabad’s population was 5.2 million in 2011 and 8 million in 2026. Yet, there are only 1,117 buses for public transport.
Since the BRTS road was built, traffic and pollution have increased. Smoke and dust have all increased. According to the new budget, 3,000 electric buses are to be deployed, which should have been 3,000 buses 10 years ago.
Bricks have been laid on the footpaths to prevent rainwater from seeping into the ground. They are dug up and relaid every year.
There is no need for a dust removal machine.
Vending machines for sanitary pads have been installed, but they don’t work. Pink toilets have been installed, but they are not used.
Details beyond the discussion are given below.
In 2019, a decision was made to install sanitary napkin vending machines in 50 toilets in Ahmedabad.
To ensure that poor women in slum areas have easy access to sanitary pads and improve their health, it has been decided to install vending machines in 50 public restrooms across the city.
Little girls will have easy access to sanitary napkins.
HLL Lifecare has decided to install 50 vending machines and incinerator devices at a cost of ₹65,695 per machine. 32,84,750 (Google translation from Gujarati)
