People will keep moving to urban spaces, cities must adjust: Union minister Hardeep Puri

Puri pointed out that by 2030, a large number of Indians would be living in urban spaces like Delhi, and said that turning people away wouldn’t work, even though it had been tried by parties like the Shiv Sena. He said, “… You can’t say, I will allow this many people into a city as there are homes. That is not how it works. If there is a slum that comes up in the centre of Delhi, you have no option but to rehabilitate the slum dweller through a modern state-of-the-art construction, then and there.”

“We tried an experiment in 1975, suspended civil liberties and tried to settle slum dwellers 100 km away. The Shiv Sena tried this in Mumbai and said we will allow only certain people. India is a democracy, it is every citizen’s right to live where he or she wants… Cities have to adjust,” he said.

“That is why I keep encouraging Anshu and, through him, his political masters, that he should approve Phase IV of Metro, approve the Delhi-Meerut (Rapid Rail Transit) corridor. Because land prices are cheaper in Meerut or in Ghaziabad… people will live in Meerut or in Ghaziabad and they will take the train,” he said.

Prakash, who has been at loggerheads with the AAP government, steered clear of political statements. “In government hospitals, we have equipment but sometimes it is not functional and that creates a problem. That is where private sector scores,” he said, adding that hospitals should aim for “waiting time to become finite and not infinite, like in government hospitals”.

Baijal, too, focused on healthcare: “The earlier prevalent feeling of mutual trust between a doctor and a patient needs to be restored and this is possible through better understanding by his patients and their relatives and the physician.”