Delhi govt claims lack of funds for RRTS project, SC calls for ad spend details

“The Delhi state government has expressed its inability to contribute funds for the project. Since paucity of funds seems to be an impediment, on behalf of NCT of Delhi, we call upon NCT of Delhi to file an affidavit setting forth funds utilised for advertisements by the state government as the project is of considerable importance. Details be furnished for the last three financial years,” the bench ordered.

The court was told about the Delhi government’s reluctance to spare funds for the RRTS project during the hearing of certain environment-related matters. To the court’s query as to why it was so, the counsel appearing for the NCT government said it was due to lack of funds and that it was a cabinet decision.

The bench then asked how much funds the AAP government had spent on advertisements, and said it can pass an order if need be that all those funds be diverted for the projects.
Though the counsel said the shortage of funds was communicated in 2020 itself, the court said it would like to see how much the government spends on other things.

The bench said it is a development project and added that “though financial aspects, we leave to the state government, but for a project of this nature when you say no funds, we want to know how much you have spent on something like an advertisement”.

The court reminded the state that “making a project is also an advertisement that you are doing something”, and asked it to file the affidavit.

According to sources, the matter is with regard to the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut segment of the RRTS, where, out of the total project cost of Rs 30,274 crore, the Delhi government was supposed to give approximately Rs 1,180 crore. Of this, Rs 415 crore is yet to be released. An official said the situation for the Delhi-Gurugram-Alwar and Delhi-Panipat segments of RRTS is also similar, where the Delhi government has not released any funds yet.

The BJP, meanwhile, attacked the AAP government after the apex court’s directions. “Today the Supreme Court has shown the 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.

The Delhi government’s ad spend has been under scrutiny for several years, with the BJP and Congress as well as the office of the L-G raising issue with the amount spent on ads since 2015. Sources said the government has spent around Rs 1,100 crore on advertising over the past three years.
Earlier this year, a recovery notice for Rs 97 crore was issued to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly misusing government funds for political advertisements. The amount, along with penalties and interest, was eventually updated to Rs 163.62 crore.

This came after Congress leader Ajay Maken filed a complaint with the Committee on Content Regulation in Government Advertising in 2016. He then approached L-G VK Saxena last October, asking him to look into the matter. The AAP had approached the Delhi High Court against the notice but did not get a stay on the demand order.

The priority section of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut project, which runs between Sahibabad and Duhai, has been cleared by the safety inspector and is expected to start operations soon. The National Capital Region Transport Corporation added it was targeting opening the entire 82-km long corridor for the public – which will reduce travel time between Delhi and Meerut to less than an hour – by 2025.