Ahmedabad hides slum stretch ahead of Trump's maiden visit

Walls come up in Ahmedabad to hide slum areas ahead of Donald Trump's two-day visit.

Gujarat: Preparations for Trump's maiden visit to India has paced up with Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) building a wall in front of a slum along the road connecting Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport to Indira Bridge.

The slum in question, Saraniyavaas inhabits over 2,500 people and hosts 500 kaccha houses.

While the opposition parties have blamed the central govt of masking a slum to conceal reality along a route Trump will likely take, Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner, on the other hand, has said that the decision to build a wall was taken a few months back and it has nothing to do with Donald Trump's visit to India.

According to officials, besides beautifying dozen roads and streets from the airport to the Sabarmati Ashram, a middle-class locality situated in the northwestern side of Motera, all roads of the city including inner streets have been resurfaced and refurbished.

US President Donald Trump will be on a two-day visit to India on Feb 24-25 with his wife Melania Trump.

There have been several instances in the past when the govt took this move to put out of sight slum areas ahead of a major diplomatic visit. In September 2017, the government put huge green cloths to screen the slums from the roads when Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie Abe visited Ahmedabad.

Further, in January 2017 Gujrat's Global Summit hosted presidents, Prime Ministers along with the Foreign Ministers of several countries where again the decorated walls were used to shield the Sarabiyavaas slum.

While there has always been an immense effort to cover up unpleasant sights of slum areas ahead of any diplomatic visit, the pertinent question of development, however, remains a real concern.