Arvind Kejriwal announced free ride for women in buses and metro without making a proposal: Hardeep Singh Puri

NEW DELHI: Taking a swipe at the AAP government, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday said chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has announced the scheme of providing free-ride to women in buses and Metro without making any proposal.
Rejecting Puri's charge, the Delhi government, however said there was a "concrete plan" and there was also no lack of funds for the proposal to provide free ride to women in public buses and Metro trains.
Puri also termed Kejriwal a "disruptionist" and said Delhi's problems will be sorted out in six months as he apparently referred to the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections.
The Union housing and urban affairs minister also likened the AAP government with theories of 'broken window economics and broken window fraud'.
According to the Investopedia website, the 'broken window fallacy' was first expressed by the French economist, Frederic Bastiat. Bastiat used the parable of a broken window to point out why destruction doesn't benefit the economy.
Earlier this week, Kejriwal announced that his government proposes to make travel for women free in public transport buses and Metro trains.
The move comes a few months ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in Delhi.
"There are two types of syndrome. One is 'Broken Window economics' and the other is 'Broken Window fraud'. Before announcement of free-ride for women there should first be buses for this.
"Ask them (AAP government) as to how many buses they have against the sanctioned 11,000 buses in Delhi," Puri told reporters here.
There are around 5,400 buses, including of 3,700 DTC buses and 1,700 cluster buses. As per the court order, there should be 11,000 buses in Delhi.
"Kejriwal has a problem of a different kind. He gives a full page advertisement, announcing that the scheme will start in next two-three months, but they don't have any proposal for it," he said.
In Parliament, Puri had earlier said that he wanted to give facility to senior citizens and students in Metro and following his direction, DMRC was working on preparing a new technology.
There should be some criteria for those girls and ladies, who are in need of help, Puri said.
He alleged that the Kejriwal government has a budget of Rs 50,000 crore, but it was not being used in Swachhta, Ayushman Bharat and many other schemes run by the Centre.
"But, he (Kejriwal) wants to give a subsidy of Rs 1,200 to 2,500 crore, and we should discuss over it. BJP is all for (the welfare of) women. We will do whatever we can do.
"But, a scheme should not be like this - first its announcement and then preparing its proposal," he said.
The minister said that on the issue of unauthorised colonies, he exposed the AAP dispensation.
"We will sort out Delhi's problem. This phenomena is here only for another six months. I have no doubt. These are people who came at number 3 (In the Lok Sabha elections). They are disruptionist," he said.
The Aam Aadmi Party came a distance third in five of the seven seats in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections in Delhi.
In a press conference, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia refused to comment on Puri's attack on Kejriwal but said, "We just want him to keep smiling and extend his blessings to us. There is a concrete plan and also there is no lack of fund for the proposal to allow free travel to women in public transport buses and Metro trains."
Delhi' transport minister Kailash Gahlot said on June 3 he had directed Transport Commissioner regarding the proposal after which he had written to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation on the same day.
"Communication with officials including those of Delhi Metro is going on. Even today a meeting was held," Gahlot shot back at Puri's charge that Delhi government floated the proposal of providing free ride to women without any proposal.