Rs 787 cr green cess collected but not used

The Delhi Government has not utilised any money from Rs 787 crore collected as environment cess this year, revealed an RTI query filed by activist Sanjeev Jain.

A breakdown of the figures reveals that the Delhi Government had a whopping Rs 50 crore in its kitty in 2015, which rose to Rs 386 crore in 2016, and a little over Rs 787 crore till now in 2017.

As per direction of the Supreme Court, these funds must be used in specific ways like augmenting the public transport system in order to fight pollution. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA and spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “The Delhi Government has never said we do not have the money to tackle pollution. We have, instead said, we have budget to buy buses, but no space to park. We have also said we are even ready for to pay for aerial water sprinkling. We just need support from the Central Government and Civil Aviation Ministry (sic).”

Under attack from the Opposition for not spending a single penny in 2017 out of the Rs 787 crore collected as environment cess, the Delhi Government on Wednesday said it has prepared a one-year short-term plan to tackle air pollution, an official said.

A Delhi Government official said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal held a meeting with senior officials on Tuesday evening and directed that the environment cess and environmental ambient air fund be used for procurement of buses.

Earlier, the official said Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot met DIMTS (Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System Ltd) officials over the issue.

Revealing the Government’s plans, he said, “The AAP Government has prepared a one-year short-term plan, under which it proposes to procure 500 electric buses within one year.”

He said the Government is planning to procure buses of two different sizes — standard and medium.

According to him, a standard size bus costs Rs 2.6 crore while the medium size bus comes for Rs 1.6 crore.

Defending his Government, Bharadwaj in a series of tweets said, “We have said we are even ready to pay for aerial water sprinkling, we just need support from the Central Government and Civil Aviation Ministry,” he wrote.

Suggesting that the Lt Governor is not allotting land for depots for the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) fleet, he said, “The Government has plan to buy 500 electrical buses (Midi and Std), but no depots to park them. The L-G controls land.”

Meanwhile, the AAP blamed the Central Government for its failure to spend Rs 787 crore environment cess collected in 2017 and accused the Modi Government of blocking projects to control pollution. “Though the Government wanted to purchase buses, the Central Government did not allot land for bus depots,” he said.

He said the Government had approached the Central Government for permission for aerial sprinkling of water to control pollution and was even ready to spend on it. Bharadwaj  said the Government had been taking other measures like spraying water on roads to control dust but this was done using other funds.

On other pollution control measures like installation of air purifiers and vacuum cleaning of roads, Bhardwaj said both options were looked into but they were not found feasible.