Sheila Dixit ridicules Bal Thackeray

New Delhi, Mar 21: In a statement which could draw the ire of Shiv Sena, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Saturday, Mar 20 expressed relief for not having Sena Chief Bal Thackeray in Delhi.

"Thank God, we don't have a Bal Thackeray! We have a truly cosmopolitan population. We have people from Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, from the northeast. Everybody who comes to Delhi finds it to be a very comfortable and warm place to live in," Dikshit said at the Asia Corporate Conference.

"There is no distinction here. What is happening in Mumbai certainly does not happen in Delhi," she said.

"Delhi is a very unique city as nothing belongs to it. Even our weather is imported. If it snows somewhere we get the cold, if it does not rain somewhere, we get the heat. We get our water from outside and we also get our power from outside," she added.

On the replacement of auto-rickshaws with battery-operated vehicles, Dikshit said that before implementing the decision, the auto drivers would be offered an alternative to shift to cleaner mode of transport, adding that the move may not take place immediately.

"The autos can only be phased out, when we give them (drivers) a better alternative to shift, like the way we gave it to bus drivers to use CNG. Before that, it is not possible (to phase out auto rickshaws) or Delhi would come to a standstill," she said.

"There has been a lot of talk about adopting three-wheeler rickshaw-cycle which could run on battery. But the battery system is not settled down, it hasn't become as credible as it should be," she said.

Earlier, the Chief Minister created quite an uproar when she announced her government's decision to phase out the auto-rickshaws in the state assembly.

OneIndia News