A Right to Information (RTI) reply obtained by activist Vivek Pandey has put the Arvind Kejriwal-led-Delhi government in dock over fund utilisation for its waste management scheme named the ‘Mukhyamantri Septic Tank Safai Yojana.’
In November 2019, the Delhi government launched the scheme to ensure the safety of sanitation workers and the proper management of waste. As per the plan, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) was to deploy 80 trucks for cleaning and maintaining septic tanks in the National Capital. On Friday (December 17), RTI activist Vivek Pandey received a reply from the DJB about the allocation and subsequent utilisation of funds for the ‘Mukhyamantri Septic Tank Safai Yojana.’
The RTI reply revealed that the Delhi government allocated ₹50 crores for 2019-2020 and ₹110 crores for the period 2020-2021. Interestingly, no fund was sanctioned for the year 2021-2022 until November 21. For the first year (2019-2020), the Delhi government did not utilise any fund that was sanctioned for the cleaning of septic tanks.
As per the RTI reply, the Delhi government spent ₹113.35 crores for the period 2020-2021 although the sanctioned amount was just ₹110 crores. Moreover, a similar trend of fund utilisation was observed for 2021-2022 when the AAP government spent ₹4.96 despite no fund allocation. The claims surrounding the ‘Mukhyamantri Septic Tank Safai Yojana’ gets grimmer when the present data is compared with the numbers obtained through another RTI reply dated February 24, 2021.
While speaking to Opindia, activist Vivek Pandey informed that the earlier RTI reply had stated fund allocation of ₹5 crores for the waste management scheme for 2019-2020. This is in contravention of the recently obtained data which has put figures as high as ₹50 crores. Both RTI replies had made it clear that there had been no utilisation of allocated funds. Pandey had raised questions about the missing trail of ₹45 crores.
*RTI filed to #DLJBD seeking information on Mukhyamantri Septic Tank Safai Yojna.
— Vivek pandey (@Vivekpandey21) December 18, 2021
Two same RTIs but different replies.
Fund released in yr 19-20 = 5 cr.
In recent RTI – 50 cr.
*Then what happened to rest 45 cr. rupee’s ?#Delhi #RTI #AAP pic.twitter.com/0EUV3o8qHz
In a tweet, he said, “RTI filed to #DLJBD seeking information on Mukhyamantri Septic Tank Safai Yojna. Two same RTIs but different replies. Fund released in yr 19-20 = 5 cr. In recent RTI – 50 cr. *Then what happened to rest 45 cr. rupees ?”
Vivek Pandey also expressed surprise at how the Arvind Kejriwal-led-Delhi government went from spending 0.07 crores (or ₹7 lakhs) in the first 2 months of the year and then about ₹113 crores in the following 8 months. He has raised suspicion of a possible cover-up by Delhi Jal Board through active data manipulation, on the behest of the Delhi government.
“With regards to the funds spent on the scheme, the RTI reply revealed that no fund was utilised in 2019-2020 while only Rs 7 lakh was used in 2020-2021 (till January 21). On the queries seeking details of number of trucks and tanks purchased under the scheme and salary of the staff working under the Yojna, the DJB responded that the data is not related to their office,” a report by The New Indian Express dated February 27, 2021 read.
RTI reply earlier revealed how Delhi CM Relief Fund spent ‘NIL’ for Covid-19
Earlier in April this year, RTI replies had revealed how Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Government received almost Rs 35 crores under LG/CM Relief Fund from March 2020 to January 2021. The Kejriwal government spent over Rs 17 crores from the collected amount. However, it failed to provide information on funds it spent to control the Covid-19 pandemic from March 2020 to January 2021.
The first RTI was filed in November 2020 and the second was filed in February 2021. While speaking to OpIndia, RTI activist Vivek Pandey had said that the Delhi Government had been consistently blaming the central government for the mismanagement of health infrastructure in the national capital amid a rising number of Covid cases. However, despite having funds in hand, Kejriwal allegedly did nothing to control the pandemic
