Jitesh Trivedi, Town Development Officer of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation has submitted his resignation on Wednesday evening. He has been facing heat from the local corporators of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for razing an alleged illegal construction at a mosque in the Tandalja area of the city.
However, Mayor Keyur Rokadia said that he has requested Trivedi to continue his post. The decision regarding his resignation will be taking in the General Board of the VMC. Trivedi will be retiring from the post next year.
This comes after the VMC on October 20 issued a final notice to the mosque to raze the alleged illegal encroachment that was constructed during the recent renovation of the structure. The issue was initially raised by a BJP corporator Nitin Donga who had also submitted an application against a death threat for raising the issue of the mosque with the JP Road police station.
Donga said that he received a representation from the local that the mosque had made some illegal encroachments and left a margin of two meters instead of six metres that was mandatory.
While Mayor Keyur Rokadia said that he has requested Trivedi, who is due for retirement next year, to continue in his post, the decision on the resignation will now be taken in the General Board of the VMC. He said that he had raised the issue in the General Board meeting of the VMC and requested them to have the encroachment removed. Following which, the VMC issued notices but didn’t follow up with them appropriately.
Officials of the VMC informed that the elected wing has been pressuring Trivedi to take an action and raze the structure while the VMC has given the trustees of the mosque time to take the encroachment down on their own.
However, Mayor Rokadia informed that Trivedi’s resignation was not because of the pressure. He said that when he spoke to Trivedi, the resignation was because of his ill health.
Officials of the VMC said that the elected wing had been pressuring Trivedi to initiate action and raze the structure while the VMC had given the trustees of the mosque time to pull down the encroachment on their own.
“I have told him we cannot accept his resignation and he is a valuable officer… but the decision will be taken by the General Board on his application if he does not withdraw it,” said Rokadia.
