Kejri govt playing dirty politics on Metro fare hike: BJP

New Delhi: Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari and Leader of the Opposition in Assembly Vijender Gupta on Sunday alleged that the Arvind Kejriwal government is running away from its responsibility on Metro fare hike and trying to mislead the people by playing dirty politics.

The city government has a 50 per cent stake in Metro and no fare hike is possible without the consent of the Kejriwal government. In the present fare hike matter too, the transport minister and even the chief minister knew very well about the rise and allowed it.

CM Kejriwal’s tweet on Sunday, regarding the demand of public audit of Delhi Metro, is a big joke on people as being 50 per cent partner, the Kejriwal government already has access to the Metro accounts.

Delhi BJP president has said that the Kejriwal government has no concern for the people and has made no effort in improving the public transport infrastructure in the city, which includes Delhi Metro, DTC, feeder buses, autos, cabs, and rickshaws.

BJP leaders have said that earlier this year, with the prior consent of the Kejriwal government, the Delhi government’s chief secretary, finance secretary, and transport commissioner joined the Delhi Metro’s Fare Revision Committee meeting and approved a 50 per cent raise in fares to be implemented in 2 phases, i.e. in May and October 2017.

With the consent of the Kejriwal government, the chief secretary and the others, who were present in the meeting, approved the Metro fair hike and did not file any dissent over the raise. All they did was to get the dates of implementation postponed to May as the Delhi municipal polls were scheduled in April 2017.

No government leaves such decisions on bureaucracy. In this case too, the Kejriwal government gave consent to fare rise, but its bureaucrats ensured that implementation was postponed after the civic elections.