Supreme Court seeks ads expenditure details of last three years from Delhi govt

The Supreme Court on Monday slammed the Delhi government for expressing its inability to provide funds for the construction of the Regional Rapid Transport System (RRTS) project and ordered it to provide details of funds spent on advertisement in the last three financial years.

The Delhi government informed Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia that it was unable to allocate funds for the project.

Criticizing the Delhi government for expressing its inability to implement the project due to financial constraints, Apex asked it to provide details of money spent on advertisements in the last three financial years within two weeks.

The bench questioned the Delhi government as to why it does not have the funds for the project to ensure smooth transport, given that it has earmarked funds for advertisements. "If you have money for advertising, why don't you have money for a project that will ensure smooth transportation?" the bench told counsel appearing for the Delhi government.

In its order, the bench said, “The Delhi state government has expressed its inability to contribute funds for the project. As lack of funds seems to be a hurdle in the project on behalf of NCT of Delhi, we call on NCT of Delhi to file an affidavit stating the funds used by the state government for advertisements as the project is of considerable importance. Details will be provided for the last three financial years.'

During the hearing, the bench was informed that the Delhi government was not ready to contribute to the project, especially the Delhi-Alwar (Rajasthan) and Delhi-Panipat (Haryana) corridors. One of the counsel appearing in the matter told the apex court that the Delhi government had taken a similar stand and refrained from releasing funds for the Delhi-Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) corridor.

The counsel for the state government told the apex court that in 2020 he announced that no funds were available with the government and the situation had worsened due to Covid-19. The counsel added that the GST compensation provided by the Center has also been stopped since the last financial year and hence no funds are available.

The Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transport System (RRTS) project is to be a semi-high-speed rail corridor between Delhi and Meerut Uttar Pradesh.This corridor will connect the cities of Delhi, Ghaziabad and Meerut and is one of the three rapid rail corridors planned under Phase I of the RapidX project.