Sheila, AAP govt led to DTC’s ‘collapse’: Manoj Tiwari

New Delhi: The Delhi BJP on Monday said that the wrong policies of the erstwhile Sheila Dikshit (Congress) government and the present Arvind Kejriwal government have led to the almost total collapse of Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC). Claiming that the finances of DTC are in disarray, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari has demanded that the Delhi government bring out a white paper on its affairs.

Mr Tiwari alleged that Kejriwal government is again trying to mislead the people of Delhi by claiming to make DTC a world-class body.

“The financial and other issues of DTC are in a state where no improvement is possible with ordinary steps as being thought by the Kejriwal regime. Not only DTC, but the entire public road transport policy followed by the erstwhile Congress and present AAP governments is such that it has put Delhi in chaos,” claimed Mr Tiwari.

According to him, till around 2010, the Delhi government flirted with bus mafias, allowing private bus operators, infamous as Killer Lines, to rule the roads. It was Delhi high court’s pressure and the fast approaching deadline of the Commonwealth Games that forced the Sheila Dikshit government to ban diesel buses and use the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission funds and other loans to add new busses. A fleet of over 4,000 low-floor CNG buses was raised between 2008 and 2011. Even in this, scams were reported both in purchase and maintenance contracts.

“Nothing can be a bigger farce than Kejriwal government’s claim. Even if the government orders the purchase of buses today, the first bus will come in around January 2018. By then around 500 plus existing DTC buses would have outlived their lawful life and get shelved,” said Mr Tiwari.