A war of words between the Delhi Lieutenant Governor's office and the AAP Government over the "Red Light On, Gaadi Off" campaign continued for the second day on Friday, with the former accusing Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai of "lying" about the date of its launch and Rai questioning the Lieutenant-Governor's seriousness about the pollution issue.
Sources at Raj Niwas said that the minister did not speak the truth about the date of the rollout of the campaign and the AAP did so to coerce the Lt Governor into taking a decision.
Setting the stage for a fresh confrontation with Raj Niwas, Rai on Friday again held a press conference and accused the Lieutenant Governor of making excuses for not giving timely approval for the 'Red Light On, Gaadi Off' campaign and questioned his seriousness about the level of pollution in the national capital.
"AAP Minister Gopal Rai lied to the people of Delhi that the campaign of Red light on, Gadi off was to be launched on October 28. The file sent to Lieutenant Governor by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal clearly mentions the date of October 31 for the scheme to be rolled out," Sources at Raj Niwas said.
According to sources, the file was sent to the Raj Niwas on October 21, which was a Friday, after which the offices fully opened only on October 27 (Thursday), following the weekend, a gazetteed holiday and a restricted holiday. "The files sent to the LG are not perfunctory in nature. They require proper consideration and application of mind," sources added. Addressing a press conference, Rai on Friday said, “Lieutenant Governor has withheld the file of the "Red Light On, Gadi Off" campaign on the pretext of leave.
The Lt Governor has made three excuses for not signing the file. The LG should Sign the file as soon as possible instead of making excuses. Fighting against pollution is the collective responsibility of all of us.”
Talking about the difference in dates of the permission sought from the LG and the launch of campaign, Rai said earlier the plan was to launch the drive from October 31. "However, later when the forecasts predicted pollution to rise after Diwali, it was decided to launch it from October 28," he added.
The Delhi Enviroment Minister said that due to the suspension of the campaign by his government, a press note has been sent to the media today as a reply by the LG office giving three excuses for not signing the file.
“The first excuse was that when the file from the Chief Minister's office came to his office on the 21st, there was a holiday for the whole week after that.
But I want to say that no Chief Minister, Minister, Governor remains on leave for a week. I myself inaugurated 150 mobile anti-smog guns outside Delhi Secretariat on 25th, the second day of Diwali”. A review meeting of the Anti-Dust Campaign was held on 26th in which all the officers were present.
We chose to postpone the Red Light On Gadi Off campaign even after waiting until the 27th for the Lt. Governor's office to respond. By using the holidays to obscure a mistake, one is playing with Delhi's residents' lives”, he further added.
Earlier on Thursday, Rai on Thrusday did a press conference on Thursday when the "LG was out of office with prior commitments including dedication of waterfalls to the people of Delhi at Asola-Bhati and then at Rashtrapati Bhawan", he said.
Rai alleged that L-G had time for things like "writing meaningless letters to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal", but didn't have time to clear an environment-related campaign. The environment minister claimed that despite repeated calls to L-G's office, Saxena hadn’t responded.
The Delhi government first launched the "Red Light On, Gaadi Off" campaign on October 16, 2020.
According to the Petroleum Conservation Research Association's data, a person unnecessarily burns fuel for 25 to 30 minutes daily while waiting at traffic signals. If car engines are turned off when the traffic signal is red, vehicular pollution will be reduced by 15 to 20 per cent.