AAP government files contempt petition against Centre on CNG

New Delhi: Delhi's AAP government on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court challenging Centre's CNG gas distribution policy, saying it deprived the national capital of the natural resource leading to increase in its price.

Moving a contempt petition against the Director and Secretary of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the Arvind Kejriwal government submitted that the guidelines is in violation of the apex court order which had directed the Centre to allocate CNG first to the transport sector.

"The directions passed by the court are abundantly clear that the Centre has to allocate CNG first to the transport sector in the polluting cities, including Delhi and if any surplus is left thereafter, the gas may be allocated to the industries.

"The respondents are deliberately, consciously and contumaciously violating these directions in as much as the CNG is not being allocated to the priority sector to fulfil its needs in the entirety and in fact the CNG is being allocated to the industries without first exhausting the full requirements of the transport sector," the petition said.

It said that distributor of CNG in Delhi is constrained to import CNG at much higher prices which in turn leads to increase in the price of CNG being sold to the transport sector.

"Due to increase in the prices of CNG, it has no longer remained an effective, cheaper and viable fuel mode option thereby defeating the very purpose and intention of the directions of this Court," it said.

The petition said that 90 per cent of the indigenously produced natural gas is earmarked for the industries and only about 8 percent of the domestic production is allocated to CGD/CNG sector all over the country for utilization in the transport and domestic sector.

It said that Delhi requires more supply of the gas as there are about the 11,000 DTC buses and private operators, 76,440 three wheelers, about 34,205 taxis which operate in Delhi on CNG. In addition to this there are also about one lakh light goods vehicles (LGV) and about 4,50,000 private vehicles which operate on CNG, it said.

"The instant contempt petition is being filed against the respondent contemnors for their deliberate and willful acts of violation of the directions given by this Court in judgment dated April 5, 2002," the petition said.