Mistry comes to city, ‘searching for Modi,’ asks why he’s mum

“I have come here specially to search for Modi or any of his ministers. He has a special Gujarat connection and fought and won Lok Sabha poll from Vadodara, but then why is there no sympathy message from him yet on the flood?” he asked, addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters at Dandia Bazar. He took stock of the situation in the city, along with leader Siddharth Patel, and demanded judicial inquiry, alleging that the flood was man-made as “faulty decision” to open gates of the Ajwa lake, situated some 13 kilometres from Vadodara, caused the flood.

In a memorandum submitted to the DEO, Mistry and Congress candidate Narendra Ravat raised questions on the way the flood was caused due to sudden rush of water from Ajwa lake after all gates were opened all at once.

“When water in Ajwa lake reached 213 feet level, the civic administration should have started releasing water slowly to reduce pressure on the lake and Vishwamitri river carrying water, but water was not released even after it reached 215 feet level, a historic height, as if the administration was sleeping. Soon after the water level reached the height of 215 feet, all 62 gates were opened, which could not rush out through the Vishwamitri river channel and caused large-scale flooding, affecting several residential societies and slum houses in Vadodara,” Ravat stated in the memorandum, adding that it was a conspiracy of the ruling BJP to affect the by-election. “We demand judicial inquiry into this man-made disaster,” he added.