Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken on Tuesday alleged that the proposal of the Delhi Government to buy 1,000 electric buses was a scam of Rs 750 crore. The proposal was announced by Finance Minister Manish Sisodia in his Budget speech, he said.
Maken said according to an affidavit filed by the AAP Government in the Supreme Court, each bus would cost Rs 2.5 crore whereas the Congress Government in Karnataka had bought the same electric buses for Rs 1.75 crore per bus in Bangalore.
He said the data clearly shows that there is scam of Rs 750 crore. Maken further said the Supreme Court-monitored Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority (EPCA) in its recent report has recommended that the court should not clear the proposal of the AAP Government as it lacks relevant details.
The EPCA also told the SC that the Delhi Government was preparing the launch of the electric buses without any preparation. He said the Delhi Government was going to spend much more per one electric bus than any other city in the country.
Maken said the EPCA, headed by Bhure lal, had informed the Supreme Court about the extra Rs 750 crore that the AAP Government would be wasting on buying the electric buses, which was a serious issue.
Addressing the media persons on the World Environment Day, Maken said though the AAP Government had presented a “Green Budget” this year, it did not take any steps to control pollution in the national Capital. “India generates around 5.6 million plastic wastes annually and according to Government figures, Delhi is the worst city for plastic consumption,” he said.
He said the Congress Government had banned plastic in Delhi through a law in 2009 and later expanded it to all plastic packaging and single-use disposable plastic, but the ban is rarely enforced. Maken said plastic bags are still the staple for carrying vegetables, fruit, meat and restaurants.
Maken said the Delhi Maintenance and Management Parking Rules 2017, prepared by the Transport Department last year, had to come into force by October 2017 but this policy is still nowhere from implementation.
He said there was poor enforcement of pollution control laws. During 2016-17, the DPCC (Delhi Pollution Control Committee) had issued 10,797 show cause notices for the closure of under water, air, environment Act which was reduced to 803 in 2017-18. “Out of the 312 closure directions in 2017-18 by the DPCC, 64 units were effectively closed. This figure also includes the units in which case the direction of closure revoked later on,” he said.