Plea on bus procurement: HC for Centre, Delhi Govt replies

The Delhi High Court today asked the Centre and the Delhi government to respond to an application filed by Congress leader Ajay Maken on the procurement of buses for public transport in the national capital.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar also asked the Delhi government to consider having multi-level parking lots for buses to minimise the need for land.

"You consider the aspect of multi-level parking and place it before the court before the next date of hearing on January 22," the bench asked the counsel representing AAP government.

The high court's order came while hearing a plea filed by Ajay Maken, who was the transport minister in Delhi in the erstwhile Sheila Dikshit government.
 

Maken has approached the court seeking impleadment in a pending writ petition which had raised a similar issue.

The court allowed his plea in the pending PIL which has challenged the Aam Aadmi Party government's decision to procure more buses for the city to strengthen its public transport system in view of the toxic air over the region.

Maken, in his plea, sought a direction to release and utilise public funds to augment public transport to curb the hazardous level of air pollution here.

Petitioner Nipun Malhotra, the main petitioner in the case, has challenged the Delhi government's move to procure 2,000 standard floor buses at a cost of Rs 300 crore, claiming that these were not equipped for wheelchair access and thus would "directly and substantially affect" about 2.34 lakh disabled people in the national capital.

The bench had earlier refused to stay the procurement but said there was an urgent need for more buses in the city and the Delhi government needed to address it on a "war-footing".

The high court had also said that despite the passage of 19 years since the Supreme Court's July 27, 1998, direction to augment the fleet of buses from 5,000 to 10,000, the target had so far not been achieved by the Delhi government.