Pune:
After NDTV exposed how tax collected to help feed malnourished children in Maharashtra was being diverted for maintenance of buses, the Director of Pune's bus transport department, which owes 50 crores, has apologised for the insensitivity and promised to deposit the money.
Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Director, Prashant Jagtap, told NDTV, "As a director I would like to convey my apologies. But my predecessors failed to deposit the amount since the scheme began. It is wrong."
The scheme - The Child Nutrition Surcharge - allows the government to keep 10 to 15 paise of the ticket fare from each commuter in major cities in Maharashtra for a fund to help malnourished children in the state which sees 66 children die of malnutrition every day.
While nobody knows exactly how much money has been collected over the last 16 years, officials say the figure could be in hundreds of crores.
Public transport officials acknowledged that about 200 crores of that money has not been transferred yet. They say, in cities like Mumbai and Pune, the transport departments cannot afford to pass on the money collected. They allege it has been used to maintain buses and keep them on the road.
Since 1997, Pune has collected Rs. 55 crores, but deposited only five crores to the fund. Mumbai owes 50 crores. The amount from other cities could be much more.
The Minister for Children and Women's Development, Varsha Gaikwad, said she was unaware that the fund existed at all. "I came to know about this now that they are taking the money for the child welfare development and they are spending it somewhere else....we will do the enquiry and take action against them."
Maharashtra is co-governed by Sharad Pawar's NCP and the Congress. But in many cities, the local corporation is run by opposition parties, who have not intervened to course-correct though transport bodies report to them.