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The former chief ministers of Delhi, Madan Lal Khurana and Sahib Singh Verma, in a joint press conference on Monday, blamed the Congress government in the state for the present transport crisis.
Commuters in Delhi faced great hardships on Monday because the transporters decided to withdraw nearly 7,000 buses from the roads following the Supreme Court's decision to ban buses running on diesel.
"If the Congress government in Delhi had banned registration of non-CNG buses three years ago the present crisis would not have arisen," Khurana said.
He claimed that he had talked to the Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani and Petroleum Minister Ram Naik and was hopeful that the Centre would be able to find a solution to the problem by Tuesday afternoon.
"The government might promulgate an ordinance permitting use of low sulphur diesel as an alternate fuel for plying buses in Delhi," Khurana said.
The former chief minister also questioned the credentials of Bhure Lal, who is heading a committee on non-polluting fuels. "Who is Bhure Lal? When top scientists of the government say that low sulphur diesel can be used as an alternative fuel, why can't the apex court agree to it?" he asked.
"I have spoken to Advaniji and told him that if a decision is not taken soon then the situation in the capital might get out of hand," he said.
Ajay Makhen, Minister for Transport in the Shiela Dikshit government, dismissed the allegations levelled by Khurana.
"You know Madan Lal Khurana. He is in the habit of making baseless allegations in his bid to get into the news. It was the BJP government, which told the Supreme Court in writing in 1998, that CNG would be available in sufficient quantity...," he said.
He added: "The Delhi government cannot supply CNG unless the Ministry of Petroleum sets up CNG stations and supplies gas to them. We need 16 lakh kilograms of gas every day, but the supply is only 3.80 lakh kilograms. So how can we supply gas to every private vehicle operating on CNG."
Himmat Singh, general secretary, P O Bus Welfare Association, said that there was no move on the part of the transporters to move the Supreme Court.
"So far there is no move to go to the apex court asking for concessions. We are watching the situation," he said.
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