File affidavit on e- rickshaw policy, HC tells chief secy

The Delhi high court directed the Delhi chief secretary to file a detailed affidavit on the policy for battery- operated e- rickshaws plying without licences or number plates on Wednesday.

The chief secretary was asked to apprise the court of why the government has not seized the e- rickshaws and on what grounds they were plying on roads by a division bench of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Jayant Nath.

“Bureaucrats don’t know how to think before passing orders,” said the court.

The court also said “Seize them if you need. How can somebody start manufacturing any contraption and ply on the road?”

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation had recently filed an affidavit filed in which they had said it could not regulate battery- operated erickshaw unless the Delhi government framed a policy categorising whether it was a motorised vehicle or a non- motorised one. The court wasn’t satisfied with the affidavit. The civic body claimed that it regulated only non- motorised vehicles and rickshaws within its jurisdiction.

The court pulled up the city transport department and the three civic corporations for permitting erick shaws to ply without registration and number plates. The court had directed the department to make their registration mandatory and to come up with a concrete policy on their operation.

The court also pulled up the Delhi government and civic bodies for blaming each other.