Delhi Flooding is Entirely Mr Kejriwal’s Fault: Hardeep Singh Puri at CNN-News18 Town Hall

Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister for Housing & Urban Affairs & Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, at the CNN-News18 Town Hall on Monday, said the current flooding in New Delhi amid the incessant rain is “entirely (Delhi CM and Aam Aadmi Party chief) Mr (Arvind) Kejriwal’s fault”.

“Land is a state subject…Every day, he makes some absurd claim. I had a meeting with Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar the other day. As we stepped out, the press asked him about Kejriwal blaming him. I admire Manohar ji’s restraint. Khattar ji replied with a straight face, “There is a difference between barrage and dam”. We are not into name-calling. As my friend Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said… You have a mechanism to deal with this. You set up meetings. Meetings don’t take place. When I was the joint secretary, Navy, we had desilting…One of my colleagues said please let us know how much you spent on advertisement and how much time and resources you spent on what you are supposed to do.”

“India is not failing in urban development…There is something called as climate change… Whether these rains were the heaviest in 40-50 years…I saw pictures of foreign countries seeing rain. I am a professional. When I look at a figure, I say we had this last year, this year, so is it getting better or not? Are you devoting resources to it? My colleagues and I have written ‘n’ number of letters to chief ministers on the measures to be taken to prevent urban flooding. Some states have, some have not. Public memory is short. So once the worst is over, there is business as usual.”

“You have budgetary provisions to deal with these things. Some of the steps we are taking in the Swachh Bharat mission are showing immediate results. We have source segregation, segregation at the point of production – wet and dry. In 2014, the percentage of waste reprocessed was 17%, today, in the nine years of the Modi government, we have now gone up to 76%. And we are taking it now to 100%. It is a legacy issue. We have inherited a problem. But the assessment comes whether we are better off or not. Wherever there are BJP governments, we are much better off. The remediation on dump sites…we are doing better…,” he said.

Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, top policymakers and leaders discuss elections manifesto, strategies and policies at CNN-News18 Town Hall. This year’s theme, ‘Exploring India’s Path to 2024 Elections’, looks to understand how political parties plan to get the attention of the voters for the next general elections.

The discussions revolve around various topics such as policies, manifestos, and strategies employed by each party. Through this discourse, the event aims to gauge preparations of participating parties for the General Elections.