The Delhi Government is reported to have recently spent Rs1.50 crore for organising public meetings in 272 municipal wards across the national Capital to seek public opinion for implementation of the odd-even scheme for second time.
The Government had sanctioned Rs50,000 as an advance payment to the Revenue Department for each municipal ward for the two-day public hearing which ended on February 7, according to a document accessed by The Pioneer.
The advance money had been drawn from the Air Ambience Fund, said sources, adding that the public hearing was convened on the directions of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Deputy Manish Sisodia.
“During the first phase of the odd-even experiment, an advance payment of Rs5 lakh from the Air Ambience Funds had been made to the Divisional Commissioner (Revenue) for deployment and training of manpower for the scheme. On behalf of the Divisional Commissioner (Revenue), about Rs25 lakh had also been released in favour of the Delhi Tourism and Transportation Department for deployment of vehicles during the 15-day drive,” the document read.
To avoid finance queries, the department had decided to approach the Environment Department to get funds from the air ambient fund, said sources.
A senior officer said the proposal for releasing Rs30 lakh to the Divisional Commissioner and the DTTDC was first sent for concurrence to the Finance Department that is said to have returned the file with the observation, “Since the proposed expenditure not be met from the Consolidated Funds of Delhi, the concurrence of FD is not required in this case, however, the Administrative Department may be advised to incur the expenditure out of the Air Ambience Fund as per rules and regulations, if any, made under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.”
The Air Ambience Fund was created in Delhi through an order in 2008. As per the directions of the said order, “The Air Ambience Fund will be utilised for the development and use of clean air technologies, waste management and such other related activities, which promote clean air policies so as to reduce air pollution and specially vehicular pollution in Delhi.”
While releasing the advance money, the Government had made it clear that the Revenue Department should submit relevant vouchers in original of expenditure duly verified and stamped by appropriate authority in the office of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee within a month from the date of organisation of public meetings.
The Government had first implemented the odd-even formula on an experiment basis for 15 days from January 1.