Puri asks Kejriwal not to politicise issue

New Delhi: With Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri asking Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal not to politicise Metro fare hike as it won't help anyone, the slugfest over the fare hike between both the stakeholders continued on Monday.

In response to the letter of the Delhi CM, the Centre, through a letter, slammed Kejriwal for making factually incorrect and untenable demands and suggestions as in his first letter of September 29.

"The three suggestions made by CM – the Centre directing its nominees on DMRC to seek postponing hike, sharing 50 per cent of operational losses, handing over DMRC operations to Delhi Govt are a violation of the existing law and policies and governments cannot be seen violating their own laws," Puri said in his letter.

The Union Minister further said, "These suggestions are not well thought out as operational losses are the sole responsibility of state governments."

"Central and state governments not intended to run Metros in case of 50:50 joint venture Metro projects like DMRC and only special purpose vehicles have been created under the policy to run them like DMRC," the letter said.

"If Delhi government is keen to prove its abilities, it can take over Delhi Metro Phase IV for doing so under the new Metro policy recently announced by the Centre; but need to keep DTC in mind. The delay in Phase IV deprived about 40 lakh people of the benefit of Metro services," the letter stated.

Puri in his letter also stated that Metros are not primarily meant for short distances as it would adversely affect long-distance commuters.