BJP to file contempt plea against govt in SC

Claims government has not kept account of environment cess collected since 2015

NEW DELHI, 09/07/2017: Delhi Pradesh BJP president Manoj Tiwari, at a seminar on "Intolenrance to Mob Lynching"-How Propaganda Machinery Works, in New Delhi on Sunday. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

The BJP on Friday attacked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government over “non-utilisation” of environment cess fund, and said it would file a contempt petition in the Supreme Court on the matter.

“On October 20, 2015, the Delhi government issued a notification in accordance with the directions of the Supreme Court to impose an environment cess on all the goods vehicles entering Delhi. The government was expected to give quarterly accounts of the cess collected to the SC,” Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said.

This fund was to be used for the improvement of the public transport system in addition to cleaning and repairing of roads, but the Kejriwal-led government neither gave accounts of the cess to the SC nor did anything for improvements in either of these spheres, he added.

‘Betrayal of people’

Mr. Tiwari said that the BJP would move the SC against this “betrayal” of the people of Delhi and violation of the directions of the Supreme Court. He added that the party would file a contempt petition. Sources said the party intended to approach the SC early next week.

“Just after coming to power, the intention of the Kejriwal-led government was to privatise the bus service in Delhi. This government tried to approve a proposal of privatisation in the name of Premium App Bus Service, which was withdrawn due to strong opposition by the BJP,” Mr. Tiwari said.

Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta, said that the total number of buses in Delhi, under DTC and cluster scheme, was 5,500 and presently the DTC had the facility to park 7,500 buses in 260 acres of depot area.

There is sufficient space for the government to park even the 2,000 new buses that it intends to roll out by next year, he added.

‘Enough land for depots’

“Besides this, the DDA is providing 32 acres of land to the government for a bus depot in Rohini. Land has also been allotted for bus depots in Dwarka and Rani Khera, but the AAP government has not started any work on these sites where 1,000 buses could be parked. This way, the government has parking space for 9,000 buses at present,” Mr. Gupta said.

The Rohini legislator added that the AAP government’s complaint about lack of land for bus depots and demand for 132 acres of land was a “phantasm to divert the public attention from the failure to resolve the pollution crisis”.