india

Updated: Jun 18, 2020 07:56 IST

Taking potshots at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Union minister Hardeep Puri said the AAP founder is a “political start-up”, who provides freebies. One cannot indulge in populist, disruptionist policies if one wants to make Delhi a world-class centre, the minister said.

Puri, a former civil servant, in an exclusive interview to the Hindustan Times, said Arvind Kejriwal didn’t stay too long in the services else he might have been a different person. “We belong to two entirely different segment of political spectrum. He is political start-up, populist, who provides freebies… I am basically a product of organization and systems,” he said.

Taking a swipe at the Delhi chief minister, Puri said, “Delhi government has Rs 50,000 crore budget… I’d like to find out how much Kejriwal spends on advertisements… he takes out an ad even when he has an idea.”

“If you are a rich city and you have all the resources, I would say make all the utilities highly subsidized... but if you have to take loans to build infrastructure it is your duty to ensure that the money is spent well,” Puri said, adding that several Delhi projects were stalled because Delhi government’s share of project finance was not forthcoming.

On unauthorized colonies, the union minister said, it was the Delhi government that had sought more time. “They appointed a company to do mapping and said they wanted time till 2019... but when I inquired further, I was told that no company was appointed and that they (the Delhi government) needed time till 2021,” he said, accusing the Kejriwal government of periodically setting up a “false narrative” against the Centre.

Referring to his letters to Kejriwal that he made public, Puri said: “I wrote a letter to him in February and I said the facts are completely different. Fact is that we want to regularize unauthorized companies by following a procedure, having a system.”

“If I had left it to him it wouldn’t have been done by 2022... I got an approval from Cabinet...,” the minister said.

On CM Kejriwal’s announcement of free bus rides to women from October 2, Puri said for providing subsidies for free travel in buses, there must be enough fleet first. “Delhi has a sanction of 11,000 buses and we are short of 7,000 buses... I don’t want Delhi Metro to look like Delhi buses.”

Arguing that Kejriwal’s word cannot be taken at face value, Puri said “he says one thing and does another till the courts pull him up… it’s not Hardeep Puri vs Kejriwal, it’s rest of the world vs Kejriwal.”