Minister for Roads, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday dismissed reports of his family’s links with a company manufacturing e-rickshaws and asserted that he has no commercial interest in the sector manufacturing them.
An official statement from the Ministry and later from the BJP sought to clarify his position in the wake of a report published in the news daily The Indian Express claiming that PGT, a Nagpur-based company having interests in manufacturing of such battery- operated tricycles, has links with Gadkari’s family.“Neither Gadkari nor any member of his family is associated with any e-rickshaw manufacturing firm,” the official statement said. Gadkari as Minister favoured lifting of the ban on e-rickshaws in the national capital.
The statement said, “The Union Minister has no commercial interests whatsoever in the e-rickshaw manufacturing sector nor has he got any link with Purti Green Technologies Pvt ltd, which, according to reports in a section of the media, has shown interest in manufacturing battery-run rickshaws.”
Battery-run e-rickshaws have been in operation in several parts of the country for many years and these are being manufactured by a large number of companies in different States, the statement said, adding that more than two lakh e-rickshaws are already operating in Delhi-NCR and other parts of the country.
The production of e-rickshaws is allowed only by those manufacturers who have obtained a licence from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and it is “up to the CSIR to grant licence to e-rickshaw manufacturers and any firm interested in its production is free to apply for a licence to CSIR and start production,” the statement said.