In June, when Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that metro services should restart in the national capital, at least for essential services, eyebrows were raised in the Central government over who would take the final decision.
The power struggle between Delhi and the Centre isn’t new, and usually it has been over the state government wanting control over services such as policing and law and order. The Delhi government has been pointing fingers at the Union home ministry for refusing to part with critical powers and functions of the city.
A similar power tussle had also been going on over the Delhi Metro between the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry and the state government over issues such as fare hike, free rides for women or even bureaucratic posting to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation board.
However, the Covid-19 pandemic has created a peculiar situation where the Kejriwal government seems to be drawing comfort from the fact it isn’t alone in taking tough decisions regarding resumption of critical services like the Delhi Metro even as the pandemic enters the seventh month in August.
Metro services have been shut since March and as the Unlock 2 phase continues, there are no signs from either the Centre or the Kejriwal government over its resumption.
With no clarity on whether the pandemic will see an upsurge once again or resumption of metro services could lead to further spread of the virus, the ball is in the air as of now.
The Ministry of Home Affairs will have to catch the ball and take the final call. The reason being that the ministry, under Amit Shah, is not only coordinating for the lockdown and unlock guidelines in the country, it is also the nodal ministry for disaster management. The NDMA Act empowers the ministry to issue notifications during a pandemic, entrusting it with tough decisions on how services falling under the central or concurrent list will be resumed till the pandemic continues.
After the MHA conveys the decision to the urban affairs ministry, it will be relayed to the DMRC, said a government official. All eyes are on the MHA as Shah has been personally taking interest in handling of the Covid situation in the capital. With no word coming from the home ministry on resumption of restricted services like metro, there is speculation whether MHA will pro-actively announce a decision or delay it till it is able to assess the Covid situation properly to avoid a negative fall out of the move, especially since Kejriwal has put the ball in the Centre’s court.
Sources in the Union home ministry said that a decision has not yet been taken on resumption of activities and services that remain banned in the country due to the pandemic and a final decision on the likely continuation of these restrictions will be taken in consultation with all stakeholders.
While the Unlock phase two had begun from July 1, the home ministry in its notification had said that metro rail, cinemas, gymnasiums and bars will remain shut without specifying any timeline for the opening up of these services. It also said that schools and colleges will remain closed till July 31.
When contacted, Anuj Dayal, executive director of DMRC said that the Central and state government are yet to take a final call on restarting the metro services. “However, we are ready to begin services in 2-3 days as soon as the government takes a decision. We are ready with protocols for social distancing, sanitization procedures and so on. Every day, we are running two trains in the morning and evening to keep the systems working on every line. So we are on standby all the time.” Dayal said that the Covid situation is dynamic and all precautions are being taken to keep the world class service safe for its passengers.
The Delhi Metro is waiting for a green signal once again. It may be recalled before the formal launch of the Delhi Metro by then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2002, then chief minister Sheila Dikshit had said that the BJP had hijacked her dream project by appointing Madan Lal Khurana as its chairman. But the BJP said that Khurana had initiated the project of Delhi Metro during his stint as the Delhi chief minister when P.V. Narsimha Rao was the prime minister. It remains to been seen if the locked down Delhi Metro will get a new lease of life by Shah’s ministry or if this will provide Kejriwal the chance to criticise the government.
