Congress ready to move court against Metro fare hike

Maken says fare panel report not fully binding on the govt

NEW DELHI, 09/10/2017: Delhi Congress President Ajay Maken addressing a Press Conference on the issue of 'Stop Politics-Save Metro', in New Delhi on Monday. Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Accusing the Centre and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of “sitting on” the report of the Fare Fixation Committee (FFC) for 15 months, Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken on Tuesday said the party would move court against the hike in metro fares if the Delhi government wouldn’t.

Citing the report of the fourth FFC, Mr. Maken said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal only started opposing the hike when it was rolled out on October 10, months after it was first recommended by the committee and announced by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.

Airport Express Line

He added that the then Delhi Chief Secretary, K. K. Sharma, was the government’s representative on the FFC and did not object to the hike. After the fares were increased, the governments maintained that the hike was as per the recommendations of the FFC.

However, citing para 3.5 of the fourth FFC’s report, Mr. Maken said that the report was not “binding on the government in totality”. In the para, the report states that the present fare for the Airport Express Line was less than the maximum fare recommended by the third FFC and that the DMRC had not proposed any changes.

Referring to the Maharashtra Metropolitan Rail Development Authority challenging the fare hike proposed by the first FFC of the Mumbai Metro One Pvt. Ltd. in the Mumbai High Court and obtaining a stay, Mr. Maken said the Delhi government could have also moved court.

Subsidise hike: Maken

He added that if the AAP government would not challenge the fare hike, then the Delhi Congress would do so in public interest.

Mr. Maken said the issue could be resolved if the hike was subsidised by the Centre and Delhi government.

As per the Metro Director’s Report of 2016-17, the total ridership was 100.79 crore, said Mr. Maken. Since the maximum hike was ₹10 and the weighted average can be ₹7.5, the impact of hike on passengers was ₹755.92 crore, he said.

The Congress leader said that since the MoU for Phase-I and Phase-II of the Metro stated that losses have to be shared by the Centre and Delhi government equally, ₹755.92 crore could be given as subsidy.