BJP raps AAP govt over unused green fund, seeks to file contempt plea in SC

The green fund was to be used for the improvement of public transport system and cleaning and repairing roads

The BJP on Friday sharpened its attack on the AAP government over "non-utilisation" of environment cess fund and said it would move the Supreme Court on the matter.

Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said that the party would file a contempt petition in the Supreme Court against the government.

On the directions of the Supreme Court, the AAP government issued a notification in October, 2015, imposing environment cess on all goods vehicles entering Delhi.

The government was also expected to give quarterly accounts of the cess collected to the apex court, Tiwari claimed.

"The environment cess fund was to be used for the improvement of public transport system and cleaning and repairing roads, but the Arvind Kejriwal government neither gave accounts of the cess to the Supreme Court nor it did anything for the improvement of the public transport system and the roads," the Delhi BJP president told a press conference.
 

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Vijender Gupta alleged that the Delhi government was making "excuses" that non-availability of land was the reason for non-procurement of buses.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is providing 32 acres of land to the government for bus depot in Rohini. Apart from this, land has been allotted for bus depots in Dwarka and Rani Khera, but the Kejriwal government has not started any work on these sites, he alleged.

"The complaint of the Kejriwal government about lack of bus depots and demand for 132 acres of land is only a ruse to divert the public attention from its failure to resolve the pollution crisis," he said.

According to Delhi government officials, the process of procurement of 2,000 buses is on and space was available for parking of the new buses.