CM to give away subsidy money to e-rickshaw owners on Jul 15

The Delhi government on Thursday announced to disburse the subsidies to 6,000 e-rickshaw pullers across the national Capital. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will give away the subsidy money to owners of registered e-rickshaws on July 15, a senior government said on Thursday.

The subsidy, which runs into Rs 15,000 and Rs 30,000, is intended to promote the eco-friendly three-wheelers used by commuters for short distances. "The Chief Minister will distribute cheques of subsidy to registered e-rickshaw owners at Indira Gandhi Stadium on Saturday," the Delhi government official said.

In total, around 6,000 applicants will get the financial aid at the event, said the government official, who did not wish to be named.

According to the Transport department, there are about 33,000 registered e-rickshaws in the national Capital. However, a large number of unregistered ones ply on the city roads, mainly around Metro stations.

Several attempts by the Transport department to regularise old e-rickshaws did not yield desired results.

As per Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's budget speech for 2016-17, the government had given a total of Rs 4.97 crore as subsidy for 3,709 battery-operated vehicles and e-rickshaws in 2015-16. The process was discontinued in March this year.

Transport department officials believe simplification of the registration process and timely payment of subsidy will help regularise the problem. The Delhi government recently made Aadhaar mandatory for the payment of subsidy for e-rickshaws.

Last month, the Department had notified making Aadhaar card details compulsory for those seeking subsidy on e-rickshaws registered in the city, in order to "prevent duplicacy" in grant of financial assistance.

The Delhi government, in its current financial year budget, has earmarked Rs 1.06 crore for providing subsidy to e-rickshaw owners.

The government had, in 2015, announced a subsidy of Rs 15,000 to owners of newly-purchased battery-operated e-rickshaws, which are authorised and registered by the Transport department.

The subsidy amount was revised to Rs 30,000 for those e-rickshaws bought after 2016. An individual can claim subsidy only on one e-rickshaw. On subsequent purchases by the same individual, no subsidy is allowed.

The subsidy is given by Delhi Pollution Control Committee from the Air Ambience Fund. The fund was created by levying 25 paisa per litre of diesel, with the objective of utilising the collected amount towards clean environment movement, including promotion of environment friendly vehicles or non-polluting vehicles in Delhi.