Kejriwal sits on Rs 787-cr green fund, puts onus on Centre as Delhi chokes

The government said it spent Rs 93 lakh of the cess in 2016, but there was “no mention of any expenditure” in 2017.

Delhi Air Quality : The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday blamed the Centre for blocking projects as an RTI query revealed that the Kejriwal government did not spend even a paisa out of the Rs 787 crore it collected as environment cess since January 1 this year.

As the capital city grappled with dangerously high pollution levels, the Right to Information (RTI) query on Wednesday found the Delhi government was unable to specify its utilisation of the Rs 787 crore green cess collected during 2017.

The government said it spent Rs 93 lakh of the cess in 2016, but there was “no mention of any expenditure” in 2017.

The AAP government came under attack from the opposition parties following the revelation.

Delhi Smog Congress chief Ajay Maken slammed the city government and said they could have bought new buses with this money and also augmented total parking capacity of the bus depots.

Lashing out at Kejriwal, Maken said: “Instead of using the money which is lying idle, he is busy aiming at other state governments and the Centre instead of doing his bit.”

Maken said Kejriwal could have purchased road vacuum cleaners, as the dust “is the single-biggest contributory factor for air pollution” in Delhi.

“When we were in power, the strength of the DTC (Delhi Transport Corporation) was 5,445 buses, which has now gone down to 3,951 buses. There has been a shortfall of 1,500 buses in three years,” he said.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) instead blamed the central government for its failure to spend Rs 787 crore of environmental cess and accused it of blocking the projects to control pollution.

AAP’s chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said they never said that the Delhi government had shortage of funds.

Click to Read → Delhi Green Funds

RBI rejects Islamic banking in India, says equal access available to all

Islamic or Sharia banking is a finance system based on the principles of not charging interest, which is prohibited under Islam.

In a major move, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided not to pursue a proposal for introduction of Islamic banking in the country.

Replying to an RTI query, the central bank said the decision was taken after considering "the wider and equal opportunities" available to all citizens to access banking and financial services.
Islamic or Sharia Banking is a finance system based on the principles of not charging interest, which is prohibited under Islam.

The issue of introduction of Islamic banking in India was examined by the RBI and the government of India, it said.

"Taking into account, the wider and equal opportunities available to all citizens to access banking and financial services, it has been decided not to pursue the proposal further," the central bank said in its reply to the RTI application filed by this PTI correspondent.

The RBI was asked to provide details of steps being taken for the introduction of Islamic or 'interest-free' banking in India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on August 28, 2014, launched Jan Dhan Yojana, a national mission to bring about comprehensive financial inclusion of all the households in the country.

In late 2008, a committee on Financial Sector Reforms, headed by former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, had stressed on the need for a closer look at the issue of interest-free banking in the country.