AAP hits out at SDMC for proposing fee on EV charging stations; it says plan shelved

The party was reacting to reports that the Corporation was planning to introduce a new policy to charge a licence fee to allow private entities to set up e-vehicle charging stations. The Delhi government has a policy in place that encourages businesses and establishments to set up stations at reasonable rates with no licence fee at all.

The AAP leader said if such a policy is brought in, it would undermine the work being done to promote the sale of electric vehicles: “The biggest proponent of modern tech solutions against pollution was the introduction of e-vehicles… The procedure to set up EV charging stations is supposed to be free of bureaucratic hurdles and licences. The PM himself wants to promote it on a large scale. But the BJP and its leaders are acting as a huge boulder in the path of progress against the word of their leader.”

The proposal, meanwhile, seems to have been put on the backburner for now. SDMC standing chairperson B K Oberoi said a proposal like that was thought of but later withdrawn: “We are not doing anything on EV, let the Delhi government plan whatever they want.”

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor also called AAP’s allegations “baseless” and said there was no such proposal before the corporation.