New Delhi, March 28 (IANS) The Delhi Assembly on Friday discussed a CAG report on the financial mismanagement at Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and referred it to the Committee on Government Undertakings to submit its report within three months.
Speaker Vijender Gupta said the Transport Department and DTC must also submit their Action Taken Note to the Legislative Secretariat within one month.
The discussion on DTC in the Assembly was held in the absence of AAP legislators who walkout or were suspended from the proceedings by the Speaker for unruly behaviour.
“The Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on Functioning of Delhi Transport Corporation for the year ended 31 March 2022” was tabled by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta in the Delhi Assembly on Monday.
The CAG report exposed mismanagement and negligence in the public transport between 2016 and 2022 under the AAP government and crores of rupees of Delhi taxpayers were wasted due to a policy paralysis.
The House held a detailed discussion on the CAG report presented regarding the “Functioning of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC)”.
Taking part in the discussion, Malviya Nagar legislator Satish Upadhyay said the DTC was once the lifeline of the city but under the AAP government it had been reduced to ‘Drastically Troubled Corporation’.
He said the DTC’s losses increased in six years by Rs 35,000 crore, rising from Rs 25,300 crore in 2015-16 to nearly Rs 60,750 crore in 2021-22 reflecting the failure of the AAP government in coming up with a strategy to make it profitable.
“It is shocking that DTC losses are as much as 60 per cent of the Rs 1 lakh crore Budget presented by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta for 2025-26,” he said.
Slamming DTC for inadequate data collection, Shahdara MLA Sanjay Goyal highlighted the CAG findings that deficiencies were found in route planning, with the public transporter operating buses on only 57 per cent of the designated routes, making it impossible for it to recover operational costs on any route.
Goyal said despite these shortcomings, DTC had no roadmap for recovery.
“Had even one AAP legislator mustered to question Arvind Kejriwal, the DTC would have been in a much better position,” he said.
The CAG report on DTC also pointed to the mounting financial losses of the public transporter which has been offering free rides to women over the past 10 years and struggling to phase out polluting, aging vehicles with e-buses.
The irregularities in the functioning of DTC pointed out by the CAG include failure to prepare any business plan or long-term strategy and inaction to prevent fleet depletion despite the availability of funds.
The DTC fleet reduced from 4,344 to 3,937 buses, whereas, as per the directions of the Delhi High Court, there should have been 11,000 buses, the report said.
The public auditor also noted that DTC failed to impose a penalty of Rs 29.86 crore for the delay in the supply of electric buses. As a result, by March 31, 2023, the percentage of over-aged low-floor buses increased to 44.96 per cent.
During the period from 2015 to 2022, DTC suffered an operating loss of Rs 14,198 crore, the report said.
The report also pointed out that the CCTV system installed buses in March 2021 had not been declared “Go Live” even by May 2023.
An amount of Rs 225.31 crore was due to be recovered by the corporation from the Transport Department and revenue losses occurred due to delays in awarding advertising contracts and commercial space allocation, the CAG report said.
–IANS
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