Written by Aditi RajaVadodara | September 18, 2025 01:17 AM IST 4 min readAccording to officials of Amod Municipality, an official programme of the SHS, which kicked off on Tuesday on the eve of the 75th birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was scheduled to be held at the ground near the Municipality head office.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat was left embarrassed on Tuesday as the President of Amod Municipality in Bharuch District, Jalpa Patel, was caught in a controversy of “litter-first-clean-later” photo opportunity at a ground chosen for the day one of the 15-day Swachhata Hi Seva (SHS) programme.A viral video of the event purportedly shows a man emptying a dustbin to litter the pathway of the ground where Patel as well as the Chief Officer of Amod Municipality Pankaj Nayak were waiting to be handed over brooms to participate in the drive.According to officials of Amod Municipality, an official programme of the SHS, which kicked off on Tuesday on the eve of the 75th birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was scheduled to be held at the ground near the Municipality head office.The video purportedly shows Patel and Nayak arriving at the designated spot and the latter immediately asking officials to hurry up and hand over the brooms. On the other end of the stretch, a man is seen emptying trash from a dustbin along the way leading to where Patel and Nayak are standing. As two other employees bring out brooms to hand over to Patel and Nayak, Patel is seen hesitantly walking away as Nayak follows her with a broom in hand, apparently realising they were on camera.The video sparked outrage, particularly from local Congress leaders, who demanded a public apology from Patel for “making a mockery out of the cleanliness drive”.Ketan Makwana, a member of the Bharuch Youth Congress, said, “The sanitation workers of Amod Municipality had already cleaned the ground when the Chief Officer and President of the Municipality purposely littered the place just to be able to have a photo shoot for their records to mark the customary Swachhta fortnight and also earn brownie points with PM Modi on his birthday. Several times, the Congress has complained about lack of sanitation and increase in cases of vector-borne illnesses in the town but these officials and office bearers are only keen on taking pictures for the record.”Speaking about the incident, Hirabhai Solanki of the Akhil Bharatiya Safai Mazdoor Sangh’s Amod unit said that the sanitation worker who has been caught in the video littering the pathway was “only following instructions”.Solanki said, “In order to celebrate the birthday of PM Modi on Tuesday, a cleanliness drive was organised around 10.30-11am at the Amod Municipality. Our sanitation worker had been called by the official as well as the office bearer (of the BJP) and instructed to bring a bucket full of trash to litter on the ground where the usual sweeping had already been done early morning and there was no garbage to clean as part of the drive…” He said, “We are Class IV workers and we have to follow the orders of the officers; therefore, there was no question that the poor sanitation worker would have defied the orders. He would have been asked to leave (quit his job) immediately… What else could he have done than to follow the orders…”While Patel and Nayak could not be contacted for their comments, Bharuch District BJP President Prakash Modi told The Indian Express that the party had been made aware about the video involving Patel, and a direction was awaited. The leader said, “The video has come to the notice of the party… I, too, received it personally from many people and I have, as my duty, informed the party’s state executive leaders. There is a meeting scheduled tomorrow (Thursday) of the state executive in Gandhinagar and I shall await further instructions. Senior party leaders will direct us on what steps have to be taken.”Prakash Modi said that while the Swachchta fortnight was an annual cleanliness drive, the party had “not forced” anyone to take “extreme” steps. “It is an annual exercise that begins on the birthday of PM Modi and ends on the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi… Though the party has not issued any dos and don’ts, every leader has been asked to perform genuine cleanliness activities and instill awareness about cleanliness (among the public)… What happened in Amod could be a personal decision of (Patel)… We will see what the state executive decides in this matter,” he added. Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Gujarat BJPVadodara