CM KEJRIWAL HOPS ON BUSES, SEEKS FEEDBACK FROM WOMEN
‘All my sisters in Delhi are now VIPS. Earlier, only MPS and MLAS would get free transport perks. Now all women will also get free transport facilities’
NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal boarded public buses on Wednesday to get feedback from women passengers about his government’s free-ride scheme. The response received by the Chief Minister during his bus rides was overwhelmingly positive. The Delhi government’s scheme to make all bus travel free for women in Delhi was launched on the occasion of Bhai Dooj on Tuesday.
The Chief Minister boarded bus number 85 from the Delhi Police Headquarters at ITO, towards Anand Vihar Bus terminal. He then got off at the Nirman Vihar Metro bus stop and boarded the bus number 720 towards Shahdara terminal. He made two subsequent stops at Jagatpuri and then toward Azad Nagar. Between the rides, he waited for the next bus to arrive with fellow riders. During his ride on bus 720, CM Kejriwal recalled his time as an activist when he used to take this route to go towards Sundar
Nagari, where he worked for over a decade on many social causes.
Tweeting on the subject
after his bus journey, Kejriwal said, “all my sisters in Delhi are now VIPS. Earlier, only MPS and MLAS would get free transport
perks. Now all women will also get free transport facilities. I boarded a few buses to get direct feedback from women.
In addition to students, working women, women going for shopping, I also met a few who have to visit the doctor regularly. They are also very happy.”
Newly deployed bus marshals with bright red bands on their arms were also present on all the buses. Every bus had two signs on panels at the top, with one of them informing women travellers about the free bus ride scheme and the other about the bus marshals. On the same day as the launch of the free rides scheme, 13,000 bus marshals were deployed in all buses of Delhi in all shifts.
The Delhi CM said, “Whenever we have taken such good steps, the opposition has criticised us. When we made 200 units of power free also they had attacked us. Good work should be supported by everybody. If this is an election stunt, instead of opposing it, why don’t they take such steps where they have elections coming up. Let them do it Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, Goa where they are in power before criticising us.”