By now Sardar Patel had become the heartbeat of the people. He had successfully led the movements of Bardoli, Nagpur and Borsad by giving up his big money. Therefore, in AD 1924, the people of Ahmedabad elected Sardar Patel as the President of Ahmedabad Municipality. Ahmedabad used to be a dirty city in those days. Patel himself cleaned the city with a broom in his hand to motivate the people for cleanliness.
He developed parks, playgrounds and recreation centers in the city. Patel got the proposal passed in the municipality that all the schools run by the municipality should be freed from government control, because due to government control, education was given in the schools from the government point of view. Patel wrote to the Inspector of Schools that now he neither sends grants to the municipal schools nor comes to inspect them.
The commissioner expressed displeasure over the resolution passed in the municipality and revoking that proposal ordered that the municipality hand over all its schools to the government. On this, the municipality closed all its schools for a month and wrote to the government to call back 300 of its teachers. A big problem has arisen for the government, where should it spend them?
On this the government appointed an inspector to examine the accounts of these schools. On this, Sardar Patel sent a reply that when we are not taking grants from the government, then what should we investigate? It was a direct confrontation that left the Ghori government horrified.
The commissioner sent a notice to the municipality that it is not performing its duty, so the government is taking all the schools under government control. The commissioner wrote to the government that the municipality of Ahmedabad should be dissolved. On the recommendation of the commissioner, the government suspended the municipal board and formed a committee for its operation. Vallabhbhai strongly opposed all the actions of the government.
All this controversy started regarding schools, so Sardar Patel decided to establish National Institutes of Education for parallel education. He appealed to the people of Ahmedabad to donate for the establishment of these schools. The public soon deposited Rs 1.25 lakh in donations.
Sardar Patel gave a befitting reply to the government by establishing 43 national schools in Ahmedabad with this amount. After two years of extensive struggle, the government conceded defeat and reinstated the municipality board. Sardar Patel remained its president till AD 1928.