leader of Opposition in Delhi Vidhan Sabha Vijender Gupta on Wednesday said the Kejriwal Government has committed contempt of orders by not using the collected 'Environmental Compensation Charge' (ECC). Gupta said the ECC was imposed on commercial vehicles entering Delhi in November 2015, following the order of the Supreme Court in which ECC of Rs 1,400 for loaded and Rs 700 for loaded light commercial vehicles, Rs 2,600 for loaded heavy commercial vehicles and Rs 1,300 for unloaded vehicles was to be collected per entry in Delhi.
He also blamed the Kejriwal Government for present levels of poisonous air surrounding the city as it has failed to use the funds collected in the form of ECC.
"The Govenment has collected about Rs 975 crores during last two years from ECC but has just spent negligible amount to reduce pollution out of this huge fund. The purpose of imposing ECC on the orders of Supreme Court was to make resources available to control pollution in Delhi," he added.
Gupta said the Government has forced the people to inhale poisonous air despite availability of huge funds to reduce pollution in Delhi. He further said 11,000 buses are required for public transport fleet, but surprisingly the Government has failed to purchase even a single new bus during last three years. Gupta also demanded that a special session of Delhi assembly should be convened on the issue so that the required steps can be taken to provide permanent relief to the people from severe pollution.
Meanewhile, Delhi Congress President Ajay Maken accused the AAP Government of criminal neglect. "Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal owes an answer to the people of the Delhi as to why his Government allowed things to go out of hand.
“This money could have been used in buying more eco-friendly buses and augmenting the parking space in the bus depots across the city. The Kejriwal Government now cries shortage of space for parking buses but we parked 6400 buses during our government. When we managed such a fleet of DTC why the AAP Government is not able to do so", said Maken.
"We bought 1839 buses between 2010- 2012 and since then not a single bus has been added by the AAP Government. Kejriwal had promised vacuum cleaning of roads in 2015 which he has not done. At a tiem when people are suffering from hazardous air, the AAP Government is indulging in blame game", Maken added.