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BRT is a problem, I'm seeking legal opinion to deal it: Bhardwaj

Jayashree Nandi & Subhendu Mukherjee, TNN Dec 31, 2013, 10.46AM IST
(Vhardwaj intends to bring…)

You have been given five portfolios, including three heavyweight departments. How will you balance your work?

I have spent more time on two departments and will focus on the other three now. I wanted to call people who are open to working on Sunday but first I need to understand the bureaucracy. They may think he is trying to show off. I have worked with companies where new managers come in and make it difficult for their subordinates, just to show that they are so loyal to their company. But this may give us a good short-term advantage; in the long term, it may not go down well. I need a buy-in from my subordinates.

I was a scrum master. It's a change from a project manager. Project managers are just leaders who are pushing for timelines. Scrum masters are the new generation servant leaders who are not always pushing for timelines but are more of facilitators between the management and the team. They are all very qualified and I don't think I should be imposing my whims and fancies on them.

How was the secretariat different from a corporate office?

I think it was similar but something seemed weird to me. Senior IAS officers - who are in all manner more intelligent than me, more capable than me, have cracked the top exams in the country - were addressing me as 'sir' and that didn't look good at all. This should change. In US culture, you call everybody by their first name but that could be a bit uncomfortable for politicians. Maybe, they could call me Mr Bhardwaj and there should be no 'sir' because that's demeaning for officers. I have communicated this to some of them through email. For example, I got an email from a senior IAS officer. e mail he said Sir I have sent you this. I didn't like it. This is something which we borrow from corporate culture.

People were otherwise warm and appeared to be cooperative. and I have to get in to a lot of things because I have two huge departments. Sunday I spent a lot of time learning about different schemes in food security-food security bill, antodaya, annashree, quota for each of them, eligibility criteria, where are the leakages, what other states or countries have done.

Use of public transport is being stressed by policy makers. Do you think we have a good public transport system for this to happen?

As of now, I don't think it is that good - for example, Metro doesn't have enough feeder buses. There is a section of people that will in the current state of things not like to switch from car to public transport. It won't be comfortable for them. So, if we really expect people to change from private to public transport, I think we should ensure comfort. As of now, even the frequency of buses is not regular. We are not ready to switch.

Critics say people will never leave their cars.

Yes and it's their fundamental right. They have a freedom to travel by their own means. The government can only provide them options or some incentives directly or indirectly to travel by public transport.

The DTC fleet is very old and the number of buses far outstrips demand and acquisition of low-floor buses has been very slow. So where do you think this leaves the people of Delhi?

No doubt this is a problem but I don't have exact figures for that. It should increase. There are a lot of things in which they have to divide their budget. I don't have those details. Haven't gone through micro details yet. After oath taking, went to Rajghat, reached secretariat at 1 pm, met media. There was a cabinet meeting and then there was an introduction with all officers, bureaucracy and all ministers. Arvind addressed them. My department people met me after that. I couldn't get in to details. It's true that it's a big problem for people.

Monorail or metro should be main spine?

I don't know. Depends on its advantages and disadvantages. Need to speak to a lot of experts and may be a public debate not necessarily through mohalla sabhas. Whatever seems good should be done. I have an open mind on this.

What do you think of BRT? You live next to it and even your manifesto mentioned it.

The BRT is a problem for me. Personally, I think there could have been better solutions. I want to go through the high court decision and want a legal opinion because sometimes legislative decisions can also be challenged. BRT is not a good solution. As of now its not able to serve its purpose to the full extent. I am getting a legal opinion on this. When I was talking to

People in my department were telling me that the government has written it off. This is not a case of poor-versus-rich though it's always painted that way. A lot of middle class people travel by car these days and bikes and scooters are used by lower classes too.

Are we going to see auto fares hiked?