New Delhi: Opposing the AAP government’s proposed free travel scheme for women in Delhi Metro trains, its former chief E Sreedharan has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to agree to the proposal as it would set “an alarming precedence”.
In a letter to the prime minister, Sreedharan, popularly called ‘Metro Man’, said if the Delhi government is “so keen” to help women commuters, it can pay the cost of their travel directly to them rather than making travel free on metro trains.
The former Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) chief has also sought Modi’s intervention in the matter.
Sreedharan said when the first section of the Delhi Metro was to be opened in 2002, he had taken a firm decision that no one would be given travel concession.
Even the then prime minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee had bought a ticket himself to travel to the station from where the metro’s first section was inaugurated, he said.
“I would very earnestly request you sir not to agree to the Delhi government’s proposal of free travel to ladies in the Metro.
“If the Delhi government is so keen to help lady commuters, I would suggest Delhi government can pay directly to the lady commuters the cost of their travel rather than make travel free on the Metro,” Sreedharan said in the letter.
Also read: Pink tokens, separate gates: Kejriwal outlines shape of Delhi’s free public transport scheme
Earlier this month, the Arvind Kejriwal government announced that it would make commute for women in public buses and metro trains free.
“Now, if ladies are to be given free travel concession in Delhi Metro, it would set an alarming precedence to all other metros in the country. The argument of the Delhi government that the revenue losses would be reimbursed to the DMRC is a poor solace,” the former DMRC managing director said.
The DMRC is a joint venture of the Centre and the Delhi government, and one shareholder cannot take an unilateral decision to give concession to one section of the community and push the Delhi Metro in to “inefficiency and bankruptcy”, Sreedharan said.
Even officers and staff, including the managing director of the DMRC, purchase tickets when they travel on the metro on official duties, he said.
Also read: Why Arvind Kejriwal is unlikely to keep his free metro travel promise to women
Reacting to the issue, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said he was “surprised” and “pained” to read Sreedharan’s letter addressed to the prime minister.
“Sir, your stand appears to be a result of misunderstanding about the Delhi government’s proposal. You will appreciate that after completion of Phase-III of the DMRC, its services were designed to have a capacity of daily ridership of four million,” Sisodia said.
The Aam Aadmi Party also issued a statement.
“We look forward to addressing Sreedharan’s concerns over our proposal. He believes making metro travel free for women will result in losses and inefficiency in the functioning of the Delhi Metro.
“We want to assure him that the Delhi Metro will not suffer any losses since the Delhi government will reimburse the agency for free rides taken by women, thus eliminating the possibility of inefficiency,” AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said in statement.
It stated that according to the former DMRC chief, the Delhi government should transfer the subsidy amount directly into accounts of travellers.
“This is not a practical solution. There is no way to determine precisely how many women will use public transport, for what distance, for how many days, therefore making it impossible to calculate the direct subsidy transfer needed to reimburse travel for women,” Bharadwaj said.
If Delhi Govt. Is so desperate to give women free rides, then they must issue a metro and bus card which is common so that it can be in Metro as well as in DTC. The cost will be directly deduct from state govt.
But many of the girls who all are independent are opposing the decision as they think that they can bear the cost. They think for their security there are many more step that can be taken.
Sridharan is an excellent technocrat-manager. But he is not the right person to take political-economic decision in a democracy. His categorical dismissal of any concessions on a public transport is oblivious of the politico-economic considerations necessary in a democracy.
This proposal is an atrocity and must be opposed by all responsible citizens. No facility should be given free to anyone, because anything given free to anyone is always a cost to someone. It is also discriminatory against men, which is violation of Article 15(1) of the constitution. It is shocking to see that not a single politician or media has condemned this “Free Travel Facility” to women only, many of whom would be quite well off to pay from their pockets. The entire cost of “Free Facility” besides being bad economics, would be eventually be recovered from the people of Delhi only. This “Free Travel Facility” is similar to the caste-based college fee system, which is imposed on less than 30% of the Non-Reserved Category students and their parents, many of whom are economically poor and are taking loans to fund their own education and those of others, many of whom might be well off. Thus any free facility is always an atrocious cost on others. In Hindi we can say, “doosron kan theka le rakha hai kya”?
Kejriwal is trying to placate women citizenry at the cost of wrecking havoc with metro working.
There is no need of making any changes by DMRC. They can sell tokens with receipt which any eligible person can submit to AAP government for reimbursement directly. Or a system simular to gas subsidy should be used where AAP government can send the subsidy directly. This should happen only if this absurd scheme finds its way to implementation.
In any case passenger has to pay money to DMRC.
Good idea.
Very sensible advice, from the gentleman who conceived and executed this transformative project. These environmentally imperative projects are not financially profitable at the best of times. With mindless populism, it will become impossible to marshal the resources to expand the network or take it to new cities.
first time i agree with ashok 🙂