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 | Scoring self-goal: Sheila Dikshit persists with BRT Our Correspondent Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit seems to be determined score a self-goal for herself and for her party. After a series of gaffes, many of them in the sphere of public transport, she is insisting on the continuance of the bus rapid transport (BRT) corridor, which is inarguably the costliest and crudest joke on the commuters of the national Capital. The state's Finance Department had cleared Rs 215 crore for the Ambedkar Nagar-Delhi Gate stretch, out of which Rs 115 crore have been spent on about half the work. The corridor, the brainchild of a couple of quixotic academics, has been an unmitigated disaster: commuters of the areas adjoining the BRT corridor have been suffering badly; the public exchequer has been abused by project implementers without the prerequisite pilot projects; the views of traffic police have been disregarded. After a number of accidents on the BRT stretch, a huge public outcry and criticism by experts, she had assured that the project would be reviewed; work on it stopped three months ago. But, incorrigibly, Dikshit wants the abomination called BRT to not only continue but expand. Unwilling to give up, she asked her own Finance Minister Ashok Walia to release Rs 119 crore; such is the embarrassment within the state Government about BRT that the Finance Minister has refused to loosen the purse strings. One of the demands of the Transport Department was an amount of Rs 46 crore for the construction of a foot-over-bridge. Walia said, "I have dismissed the demand and asked them what arrangements have been made for pedestrians at bus stops. The decision for release of funds will only be taken when the proper infrastructure will be created." According to a news report, "The Finance Minister also sought an explanation from RITES officials, consultants for BRT, for the poor planning, lack of smart signals and manning of strategic points which causes accidents every now and then." At a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party has made it clear that it would highlight the idiocy of BRT corridor, one would have expected the Sheila Dikshit regime to keep the people's attention away from it. But the Chief Minister is doing just the opposite. Perhaps, she believes that the project is good; perhaps, the reason for her stubbornness is that she does not want to be seen as the person who started a bad project. Whatever maybe the case, it is clear that Dikshit is in no mood to change her views on the corridor. What she and her BRT-loving cronies do not realize is that the people of Delhi may be willing to change the government in the forthcoming Assembly polls. Posted on : 10/16/2008 Mail this article to your friend |