Don’t want hike in fare? Pay R 15k cr: Centre to AAP govt
NEW DELHI Union housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said the Delhi government will need to pay ₹3,000 crore annually for five years if it wants to stop the increase in Delhi metro fares next week, setting up a confrontation with the Aam Aadmi Party-run administration.
The Delhi Metro, used by 27 lakh people every day in the national capital region that includes parts of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, is set to implement its second fare revision in eight years on Tuesday, a decision chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has called “anti-people”.
Puri’s position was expressed in a written response to Kejriwal on Friday. The Union minister said his administration was not authorised to stop the fare hike but could consider a suspension if the Delhi government pitches in with funds.
“In case the State Governthe ment agrees to provide grantsin-aid of nearly ₹3,000 crore per annum to DMRC, then another FFC (fare fixation committee) may be constituted, which may also examine the financial viability of DMRC,” Puri wrote, referring to the fare fixation committee, a panel that suggested the contentious hike.
Sources in the Delhi government said the CM was yet to receive Puri’s response. “But from what we have heard so far, it looks like minister Puri is saying DMRC accumulated losses over the years and now people of Delhi should compensate for it,” said a Delhi government official, requesting anonymity.
Kejriwal’s administration and the federal government have often locked horns on several issues. The turf war between the two is also expected to play out in the Supreme Court next week when it hears a petition by the AAP government challenging powers of the Lieutenant Governor, an authority that functions on the recommendations of the Centre. On the metro fares issue, his party has threatened to launch a protest.
The Delhi Metro’s minimum fare was hiked from ₹8 to ₹10, and the maximum from ₹30 to ₹50 in May this year. If the fares are increased on October 10, those travelling more than two kilometres will need to pay ₹5-₹10 more.
The tariff is based on the recommendations of an FFC, a panel that has members from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and the Union and state governments that are 50:50 partners.
The FFC’s are temporary in nature and are set up by the Centre only when a metro rail corporation requests a fare hike.
The Union minister said his department did not have the authority to suspend the hike.
Kejriwal had on October 2 called for an independent audit of the DMRC when he also asked for the fare revision to be put on hold until the exercise is over.