Supreme court reprimanded AAP after they claim ‘no money’ to fund Rapid Metro
Of the total project cost of Rs 30,274 crore for the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut segment of the RRTS, the AAP government was supposed to give Rs 1,180 crore, but Rs 415 crore is yet to be released
The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government was reprimanded by the Supreme Court on Monday for declaring that it was unable to contribute funds for the construction of the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) project and was ordered to provide information about the money used for advertising the previous three fiscal years.
The Aam Aadmi Party administration was ordered by a two-judge panel, led by Justice SK Kaul and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, to submit an affidavit outlining its expenditure within two weeks. The money was allocated for the RRTS extension that will link the national capital to Rajasthan and Haryana.
“You want us to get into what funds you are spending where. All funds for the advertisement shall be diverted for this project. Do you want this kind of order? You are asking for it,” the court said
“The Delhi government has expressed its inability to contribute funds for common project. Since the paucity of funds is an impediment in this project, we call upon the NCT of Delhi to file an affidavit setting forth the funds utilised for advertisement as the project is of national importance. Details may be furnished for last financial years,” the bench said.
The BJP, meanwhile, attacked the AAP government after the apex court’s directions. “Today the Supreme Court has shown a mirror to the Kejriwal government by asking for details of how much money it spent on advertisements in the last three years… Instead of spending money on Delhi’s development works, Kejriwal is wasting public money on his publicity,” Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said.
“Arvind Kejriwal’s Govt has expressed inability to fund the NCR Rapid Rail project, citing lack of funds. Kejriwal, in the last 5 years, has spent a whopping 1,868 crore on advertisements, that is more than 31 crore per month and approx 1.2 crore per day!” BJP IT-cell head Amit Malviya tweeted.
“When you blow up tax payers money on self-promotion, there will obviously be no resource for development work!” he added
The AAP or the Delhi administration have not yet addressed Malviya’s accusation.
