People don’t feel safe in Punjab, says Hardeep Singh Puri

Union Minister Hardeep Puri says it has become a ‘free-for-all’ after the Aam Aadmi Party came to power

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday expressed concerns over the law and order situation in Punjab after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power in March, saying people in the border State did not feel safe.

Mr. Puri, who holds the Housing and Urban Affairs (HUA) and Petroleum and Natural Gas portfolios, was addressing a press conference at the HUA Ministry offices about the achievements of the two Ministries in eight years of the Narendra Modi government.

When asked about the law and order situation in Punjab, with the recent killing of rapper Sidhu Moosewala, Mr. Puri said: “Law and order has deteriorated to where people don’t feel safe. It’s a free-for-all. They [AAP] are not able to handle it”.

Mr. Puri said he had expressed this to “them” personally, that the “fire will engulf them also”. Referring to the incident in January, when the Congress was in power in the State, when Mr. Modi’s convoy was stranded on a flyover during a visit, Mr. Puri said he was present there and saw the Director General of Police ask “his political masters” to allow the police to clear the blocked path.

Meanwhile, Mr. Puri said a pilot project was being planned for city buses to run on green hydrogen. He said earlier the plan was to roll out the project in Delhi, but he decided not to. HUA secretary Manoj Joshi said the detailed project report was being finalised for the Delhi-Alwar section of the Regional Rapid Transit System and would be taken to the Cabinet within the next few months for approval.

On the hike in fuel prices, Mr. Puri said the international situation was “challenging” and that the government had worked to ensure that adequate petrol and diesel was available in India. “Prices, to the extent we can control them, are being controlled,” Mr. Puri said, citing the two excise duty cuts in November 2021 and last month.