Arvind Kejriwal has gold medal in promising freebies: Union minister Hardeep Puri

Puri, speaking at a press conference in Kochi on the sidelines of the Ministry’s urban mobility conclave, said affordability of public transport was a decision based on efficiency and not populism.

Responding to a question on making Metro services more affordable, Puri said: “This strikes at the very heart of revdi politics. If you listen to my friend, Mr. Kejriwal, who got a gold medal at the last Olympics for promising freebies, he will say ‘make the Metro totally free’ and will give the argument that instead of 60 lakh, 90 lakh people will travel and it will reduce pollution.”

But, Puri said, the Delhi Metro was started with a Rs 27,000 crore loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency and the metro network in the National Capital Region could be expanded to the current 390 km because the loan was being repaid.

“Luckily Mr. Kejriwal doesn’t have to run the Metro… Ask Mr. Kerjwial what he does with something that is under him, the Delhi Transport Corporation. It has a sanction for 11,000 buses, but only 3,000 are plying… Before every election, he will come around and say ‘I’m getting new buses’,” Puri said.

In response to another question, Puri said that with the state of the air quality in Delhi, he may move to Kerala. “The way my friend Mr. Kejriwal has created pollution in Delhi, I would rather live in some part of green Kerala where the air is cleaner and you can enjoy nature better,” Puri said.

Meanwhile, asked about the construction of the new Parliament building, which was scheduled to be completed this month, Puri said it was progressing well. “I go there every week… The work is going at a very fast pace. We have something like 4,000 people working round the clock. But whether the date will be ‘x’ or 10 days later or five days earlier, those are announcements the government has to make.”