The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on Wednesday said it has the “will and the resources” to get more DTC buses, but was not getting land from the Centre to park the vehicles.
The government was countering allegations made by the Opposition that it was making excuses for not procuring more buses and was not spending the funds collected as environment cess.
₹787 crore of green cess
An RTI revelation on Wednesday said the Delhi government had failed to specify its utilisation of the ₹787 crore of green cess collected in the last three years.
The AAP blamed the Centre for its failure to spend the money collected under the cess and accused the BJP government of blocking projects, which would help control pollution in the Capital.
AAP Delhi unit’s chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said the party never said the Delhi government had shortage of funds.
“We have the money and are ready to get more buses for the people. In fact, in every budget we have shown the amount kept aside for the procurement of buses. Though the government wanted to purchase buses, the Centre did not allot land for bus depots,” he said.
The AAP leader said that instead of providing additional space for parking buses, the Millennium Bus Depot, which was the biggest parking space with the government, was also taken away after a court found it to be encroaching the Yamuna floodplains.
Against the rules
“The Delhi Development Authority had assured us that we would be given land in place of the Millennium Depot but that has still not happened,” he added.
As per the rules, before floating the tender for buying buses, the government has to specify the parking space for new buses. Without this detail, a tender cannot be floated.
Mr. Bharadwaj further said that the Delhi government had approached the Centre seeking permission for aerial water sprinkling to control pollution and dust, adding that they had even offered to bear the entire expense of the project.
“The government is doing everything that is under their control to deal with this pollution emergency,” he added.
On other pollution control measures like installation of air purifiers and vacuum cleaning of roads, the AAP leader said that both options were looked into but they were not found feasible.
