A day after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government announced its decision to make travel free for women in buses and metro, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari wrote to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to bring out white papers on public transport and the pollution scenario in the city.
Tiwari said the announcement to make public transport free for women is a mere poll gimmick to improve the electoral fortune of AAP.
Tiwari also raised nine questions related to public transport and air pollution and sought answers from Kejriwal.
In a letter to the chief minister, Tiwari said Delhi's public transport system is on the verge of "collapse" as both the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and the Cluster bus service have "failed" the people of the city.
"A wider section of working women don't want freebies, they actually want better safer and reliable transport services," he said.
Tiwari requested the Chief Minister to come out with white papers on public transport and pollution addressing issues like number of buses, facilities for women commuters in buses and metro trains, approval of Delhi Metro's Phase IV, collection and use of green tax, and steps taken to control dust and vehicular pollution.
Tiwari claimed that the number of public transport buses has come down from around 5,500, when AAP came to power in 2015, to 3,200 at present.
"Most of the buses being around 9-10 years old are in poor condition and not road worthy. At least 700 to 1,000 DTC buses are out of service on a daily basis due to breakdown leaving just around 2,200-2,500 buses on the roads on any given day," Tiwari said.
Announcing free ride for women in public buses and Metro trains in the next 2-3 months, Arvind Kejriwal said by November this year around 1,000 buses will join the existing fleet of buses. As much as 3,000 buses will be physically delivered in next 10-12 months, he said.
Tiwari further claimed that Delhi Government has not been able to spent the amount of Rs 2,000 crore collected as green tax from commercial vehicles entering Delhi.
"It is really strange why Delhi Government is sitting on such huge funds and making no efforts to use it for taking anti-pollution measures," he said.