Taking a dim view of the Arvind Kejriwal government’s proposal to allow free ridership for women in Delhi metro, the Supreme Court said on Friday that sops and loss claims do not go hand in hand.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta was hearing the Delhi government’s contention that the Centre must share fifty per cent of the land cost and taxes for the expansion of Delhi Metro’s Phase IV.
“On one hand it (Delhi government) is extending sops but in court it wants direction to centre to bear 50 per cent operational losses, if ever incurred in future… if you allow people to travel free then it will be a problem, if you give freebies then there will be a problem,” the court said.
Justic Arun Mishra said that the court would stop all sops. “Here you talk about losses and fighting for sharing costs. You handle public money. Court is not powerless to order proper channelisation of funds… self-treated bankruptcy should not come in the way.”In June this year, Kejriwal had announced that his government was working on a proposal to offer free rides to women in Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses, cluster buses and the Delhi Metro.
On Friday, the court came down heavily on this announcement saying: “Once you enter into sops and then talk of loss then we are in for difficulty.”
The Phase IV of Delhi Metro will consist six corridors — Aerocity to Tughlakabad, Inderlok to Indraprastha, Lajpat Nagar to Saket G Block, Mukundpur to Maujpur, Janakpuri West to R K Ashram and Rithala to Bawana and Narela.Under the Centre’s existing policy on Metro construction, land cost for a project is borne by the state government. However, AAP-led government in Delhi has contended that the Centre must share fifty per cent of the land cost. Similarly, it wants the Centre to even bear fifty per cent of the burden when it comes to payment of taxes and also if the DMRC defaults on the Japanese loan taken for the project.