Min Puri swipes at Kejriwal, says CM is yet to propose free ride for women

Taking a swipe at the AAP government, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri Thursday said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has announced the proposal of providing free-ride to women in buses and Metro without making any proposal.

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 1700 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 my 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 all the seven seats in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections in Delhi.