The Delhi government is "sitting" on the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) file on corridor between Delhi and Meerut that aims to de-congest the national capital, the Centre told the Supreme Court Thursday.
The apex court should give a direction to the Delhi government on this issue, the Centre told a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta.
"The Government of India and Uttar Pradesh are committed on their shares. We are yet to get it from the Delhi government. We want a direction from this court for Delhi government as they are sitting on it," said Additional Solicitor General (ASG) A N S Nadkarni, appearing for the Centre.
The issue cropped up before the court when it was hearing a matter relating to air pollution in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR).
Advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the top court as amicus curiae in the matter, raised this issue and said RRTS was a "very important" project as it would have two corridors -- Meerut-Delhi and Panipat-Delhi.
"It will connect Delhi with Meerut and Panipat. Delhi government is sitting on this file," Singh said.
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During the hearing, the bench observed, "They (Delhi government) will say they have no money".
To this, the amicus said, "Rs 1,000 crore is lying in ECC (environment compensation charge) and it could be used for this. It (RRTS) will help in de-congesting Delhi".
The bench said it would take up this issue for hearing next week as no counsel was appearing on behalf of the Delhi government.
The bench also dealt with the issue pertaining to draft rules of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) on hologram-based, colour-coded stickers for vehicles that would indicate the fuel being used by them.
The amicus had Wednesday claimed in the court that Union Law Ministry was "sitting" since August on the draft rules sent to it by the MoRTH.
During the hearing Thursday, the ASG said that the Law Ministry had earlier posed certain queries from the MoRTH.
MoRTH had replied to the queries, he said, adding that the Law Ministry has now sent the file back to the ministry.
The apex court had on August 13 accepted the proposal of MoRTH to have hologram-based, colour-coded stickers for vehicles plying in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) which would indicate the nature of fuel used in them.
MoRTH had said that hologram-based light blue colour sticker would be used in vehicles using petrol and CNG fuel, while an orange sticker would be put on diesel-run vehicles.
The date of registration of the vehicle would also be printed on these stickers, the ministry had said.
On August 13, the court had said that decision for stickers of light blue colour and orange colour should be implemented in the NCR Region by October 2, 2018.
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