TAP TO UNMUTE File picture: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal | Photo Credit: IANS

New Delhi: In a shocking disclosure, a Right to Information (RTI) query on Wednesday revealed that the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government has failed to specify its utilisation of the Rs 787 crore green cess collected during 2017.

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The revelation, which has put the Delhi government "in a spot", comes at a time when the national capital is battling smog and pollution. On one hand, Kejriwal is blaming other state governments for not cooperating with his administration to ensure that Delhiites breathe fresh air, while on the other hand, an RTI query reveals that the Aam Aadmi Party government is sitting on environment fund.

The Delhi government -- in the RTI reply to Sanjeev Jain, a Right To Information activist -- said it received Rs 50 crore in 2015, Rs 387 crore in 2016 and Rs 787 crore as environment cess from January 01 to September 30 in 2017.

The Arvind Kejriwal government said it has spent Rs 93 lakh of the environment cess in 2016, but there was "no mention of any expenditure" in 2017.

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The Aam Aadmi Party, meanwhile, blamed the central government for its failure to spend Rs 787 crore environmental cess collected in 2017 and accused the Modi government of blocking projects to control pollution.

AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said the party never said the Delhi government had a shortage of funds.

"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 the aerial sprinkling of water to control pollution and was even ready to spend on it.

Bharadwaj told IANS that 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, the leader said both options were looked into but they were not found feasible.

The Environment Compensation Charge (ECC) was imposed by the Supreme Court in 2015 on trucks entering Delhi.

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has amassed Rs 62 crore as one percent cess from dealers selling diesel cars with engine capacity of 2000cc and above in the Delhi-NCR region following a directive of the Supreme Court in August last year. The cess on diesel was announced by the Sheila Dikshit government in December 2007 as part of its efforts to control air pollution due to vehicular emissions.

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) collects the ECC and hands over the amount to the city's transport department every Friday, Usman Nasim, a researcher with the Centre For Science and Environment (CSE), said.

The corpus, known as 'Air Ambience Fund', is maintained by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC). Over the years, it has assumed a substantial size and stands at around Rs 500 crore currently, Nasim said.

The RTI response has given fresh ammo in the hands of the Opposition to target the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.

The Congress said the city government was not utilising funds for strengthening the public transport system, and instead was involved in "blame game".

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"It is complete negligence on the part of (Chief Minister) Kejriwal's government. It has not been able to utilise Rs 787 crore which is lying idle," Delhi Congress Chief Ajay Maken told IANS.

"The public transport system in Delhi is in shambles," Maken said.

The Congress leader slammed the AAP government and said they could have bought new buses with this money, and also augmented total parking capacity of the bus depots.

Lashing out at Kejriwal, Maken said: "Instead of using the money which is lying idle, he is busy aiming at the other state governments and the Centre instead of doing his bit."

Maken said Kejriwal could have purchased road vacuum cleaners, as the dust "is the single biggest contributory factor for air pollution" in Delhi.

"In Delhi, if we look at all the factors contributing to air pollution, then about 80 percent of it is due to road dust, vehicular movement, industrial pollution and domestic pollution. And the Delhi government itself should deal with it," he said.

"He (Kejriwal) is passing the buck and trying to get attention. He could have utilised Rs 787 crore... they could have bought more than 1,500 Delhi Transport Corporation buses," he said.

He accused the Delhi government of deterioration in the DTC fleet over the last few years.

"When we were in power, the strength of the DTC was 5,445 buses, which has now gone down to 3,951 buses. There has been a shortfall of 1,500 buses in three years," he said.

The Congress leader also said that the passenger ferrying capacity has also gone down from 46 lakh per day to 26 lakh per day.

"People have been forced to use their two-wheelers in the absence of a robust public transport system," Maken added.

When contacted, a senior transport department official of the Delhi government said that only on Tuesday, a decision has been taken to use the fund to subsidise the procurement of electric buses.

"We will use the fund for electric mobility. E-buses are very costly upfront and need to be subsidised in the first phase. Subsequently, running them does not entail much expenditure," the official said.

However, it could not be immediately confirmed as to how many electric buses the government is planning to buy and the amount required to do so.

Moreover, around Rs 120 crore from the ECC corpus will also be used to install radio-frequency identification devices (RFID) on trucks for the effective and credible collection of levy and the ECC, according to a 2016 Supreme Court order.

The RTI response says that Rs 93 lakh was paid to the SDMC for payment towards pretendering incidental cost related to preparation of RFID documents.

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The CPCB plans to use a part of its green fund, collected as the diesel cess, for conducting studies on improvement and management of air quality in the region, while around Rs 2.5 crore is being used in setting up pollution monitoring centres across NCR.

The apex pollution regulator recently invited Expression of Interest (EOI) and proposals for such studies, which, it said will lay major emphasis on boosting its pollution monitoring infrastructure.

According to the EOI document, the projects will have to focus on areas such as the health impact of air pollution and on possible steps to create awareness among the masses by installing LED panels displaying pollution levels among others.

(With Agency inputs)