‘You have to be arm twisted to give money’: SC rebukes Delhi govt over ‘partial compliance’ in rapid rail project

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday took strong exception over “partial compliance” of its order requiring the Delhi government to make arrangements of funds for construction of the Delhi-Alwar and Delhi-Panipat corridor of Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) project.

“You have to be arm twisted to give money which you are liable to pay. This is the problem. Why do they not make the budgetary provisions? You can make budgetary provisions for 580 crores odd for advertisements but you can’t make budgetary provision of 400 odd crores,” a bench headed by Justice S.K. Kaul told Delhi government’s counsel after she said that the government of the national capital is making budgetary allocation for the rapid rail project.

The bench, also comprising Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, said that it passed the order transferring the funds allocated for advertisement purposes to the RRTS project to make the government realise “what they are doing”.

It added that the Delhi government wants “all monies to be withdrawn out of environment fund only” and “does not want to make budgetary provisions”.

“We are concerned with compliance with our order. Have you paid or have you not paid? Have you transferred the funds or not,” the top court asked. “Funds are not transferred,” submitted senior advocate Atmaram Nadkarni, who appeared on behalf of the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), before the apex court.

Referring to the sanction order issued by the Delhi government on November 24, Nadkarni highlighted that only “partial compliance” has been made by paying 415 crores towards the fulfillment of its share for construction of the Delhi-Meerut corridor of RRTS.

“150 crores for Delhi-Alwar and Delhi-Panipat corridor has not been settled,” he added.

In its order, the top court noted that the sanctioned amount may not have been credited into the account of the NCRTC – a joint venture company of government of India and states of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh which is implementing the RRTS project.

“However, the sanction order itself states that it is ‘partial compliance’. There cannot be no question of partial compliance and complete compliance must take place as per the schedule,” it added.

The matter will be taken up for further hearing on December 7.

In an earlier order passed on November 21, the apex court was “constrained” to direct that funds allocated for advertisement purposes be transferred to the RRTS project.

However, it had kept its order in abeyance for a period of one week and said that if the funds are not transferred, the order will come into operation on November 28.

In its application, NCRTC had said that the Delhi government by not releasing promised funds had breached its undertaking given earlier to the Supreme Court.

In Julyr, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Sighvi, appearing for Delhi government, had assured the top court that the project’s overdue amount of Rs 415 crore and other arrears will be paid within a stipulated timeline.

–IANS