No proposal on free rides for women: Hardeep Puri on Kejriwal’s promise

New Delhi: After the populist announcement by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on free travel for women on public transport, housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Puri called him out and said there was no such proposal received by Delhi Metro or his ministry, which is the nodal ministry for India’s Metro services.

Lashing out at Kejriwal for floating half-baked proposals and not seeing vital issues through, Puri said, “Where is the proposal? The ministry has not received it.

DMRC has not received it. Who is funding what when – we do not know.” He said Kejriwal was in the habit of making ambitious announcements through full page advertisements but they never fructified.


“He did the same thing in unauthorised colonies. We asked him lets sit and solve this. He couldn’t do it.”

The minister criticised Delhi vernment’s performance on public transport front. He said before allowing women to travel free there was a need to improve Delhi’s public transport. “We are all for women safety. BJP has always supported such initiatives. But we would like to know from the chief minister that there is a sanction for 11,000 new buses. How many have been bought and introduced?” Accusing Delhi government of depriving Delhi’s citizens of vital schemes of the Centre, Puri said that Delhi government was not participating in Swachh Bharat and Ayushman Bharat. “They are disrupgotionists.

What can you do? I have myself written several letters over the last 6 months to join schemes but nothing has moved,” he said.

The minister floated a new concept – deduct provident fund for undelivered promises. “You know when we served as government functionaries our bosses would write on files if they saw some half baked proposal – let the money be deducted from provident fund of the officer. So is there a provident fund for former chief ministers?” Puri asked alluding to BJP’s claim that it would sweep the state in the forthcoming Assembly elections.