BJP alleges Rs 500 cr panic button scam, Kejriwal govt denies charge

New Delhi: The Delhi BJP on Tuesday alleged a Rs 500 crore scam involving panic buttons installed by the transport department through vendors in private taxis and buses, a charge termed by the Kejriwal government as “baseless”.

Addressing a press conference here, the leader of opposition in Delhi Assembly, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri claimed that around Rs 500 crore were charged from operators of taxis and buses in the name of panic buttons by Delhi government’s transport department since 2019.

“However, the panic buttons are non-functional because there is no control centre to act on any distress faced by the passengers. This is one of the biggest scams in the name of women safety,” he charged.

Bidhuri said that a delegation of Delhi BJP led by its president Virendra Sachdeva will meet Lt Governor V K Saxena and demand a CBI probe into the “scam”.

Also, the BJP MLAs will accompany taxi and bus operators and stage a demonstration at chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence, he said.

“We will request him to show everyone how panic buttons work. Not even a single woman has been helped due to the panic button so far because there is no control room to act upon any distress signal,” Bidhuri claimed.

The Kejriwal government should tell the people what happened to the Rs 500 crore it has collected in the name of panic buttons and women safety, he said. Bidhuri said Rs 9,000 for taxis and Rs 22,000 for buses were charged from their owners by the private vendors.

Later, the Delhi government said that the allegations made by Ramvir Bidhuri is completely “baseless”.