Shunning the ‘VIP’ culture and practicing the ‘common man’ culture, Delhi’s Urban Development and PWD Minister Manish Sisodia took a ride on Delhi Metro on Tuesday. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader took the Metro for the second consecutive day to work and interacted with passengers on his way. He asserted that the ride was important as it offered him a first-hand experience with the people’s problems and he could accordingly introduce reforms within his Ministry to address their problems.
“The Metro ride has always been a safe and faster bet for the people. It also offers you an excellent opportunity to interact with scores of people and getting acquainted with their daily problems. Knowing people’s problems will also help immensely in coming up with the policies that will benefit people, rather than taking policy decisions behind closed doors,” said Sisodia. “Delhi Metro’s success story has been a result of the engineers, due to whose efforts the new age public transport system has been able to make its inroads into the Capital. The Delhi Government will not put any roadblocks into Metro’s expansion plans,” he added.
Sisodia had taken the Metro for the second day to reach his office and revealed that he has some unusual plans for the New Year. He said he intends to spend his New Year’s Eve with the people who live on the streets. Sisodia accompanied by other Aam Aadmi Party leaders like Kumar Vishwas and Sanjay Singh inspected the night shelters in the city post midnight on Monday. He gave the shelters thumbs up. “I didn’t see any problems here, I talked to people and everything is fine,” he said.
Since the first day to work, the AAP leaders have been commuting on public transport, in a bid to keep up with their poll promises not to lose connect with the common man. On Monday morning, Rakhi Birla, the 26-year-old Women’s Welfare Minister had arrived at work in an autorickshaw. Her colleague Somnath Bharti took the Metro to office.