It was an awkward moment when the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) held a meeting in its council hall when the air-conditioning went down and the councillors faced scorching heat and humidity.A humiliating scene was played out by the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) during its meeting held at the council municipality when it faced an AC failure during the meeting and the councillors were left entangled in heat and humidity.
It happened in a special meeting of the municipal council, organised at the ISBT council hall in advance of the monsoon season. The meeting commenced with the singing of Vande Mataram followed by discussions mostly on issues of cleanliness, waste management, and environmental issues. Suddenly, though, the air conditioning in the hall broke down, causing the discussions to be drowned out.
As the temperature began to climb inside the tightly packed hall, Councillors were seen using copies of the meeting programme as makeshift ‘cool fans’ for relief to ease the heat. The scene bore video were streaming, and generating a social media diatribe, extraordinarily fast.
The meeting was held within the framework of the activities related to World Environment Day, under the theme of implementing the “Solid Waste Management Rules 2026”. Topics covered were waste segregation, waste disposal, and initiatives for sanitation improvements throughout the city.
Malti Rai said that the meeting had discussed the classification of the household wastes into four categories and the need of better waste management. She had also praised the involvement of sanitation workers, municipal employees in going to great lengths to overcome the problems of the weather.
Concurrently, council chairman Kishan Suryavanshi emphasized on making Bhopal polythene free and enhancing the garbage collection systems on the public convenience basis.
Interestingly, the incident has raised questions about the management of the infrastructure, particularly when civic leaders sitting in talks around the development of the city faced difficulties in accessing basic amenities in their own council chamber.