Better version of car curbs soon, says Delhi CM

Government to hold odd-even review meeting today

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday announced that an improved version of the “odd-even” scheme, with necessary “precautions and changes”, will be announced and “implemented soon” in the national capital, as he thanked the people for their “overwhelming” support to his government’s flagship initiative. Addressing a “thanksgiving” rally on the “grand success” of the pilot road-rationing scheme, Mr Kejriwal said the experiment saw nearly “100 per cent” participation by Delhiites.

Transport minister Gopal Rai, who also spoke at the event that was marred by an ink attack on Mr Kejriwal, said the scheme, in its second phase, will “include all” towards which the Delhi government has already started “working”.

He, however, did not elaborate on the specifics. The Delhi government will hold a review meeting on odd-even scheme on Monday to assess its impact and future. The pilot phase of the scheme had seen several exemptions, including women. Two-wheelers were also kept out of its purview.

The chief minister thanked and congratulated the people of Delhi. He had special praise for Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur, who carpooled to office during the implementation of the scheme. Mr Kejriwal said Mr Thakur’s decision to carpool “inspired lakhs and crores of people”.

“Tomorrow (Monday) there is a meeting with different departments to understand the problems that the scheme faced from January 1 to 15. In the coming days an announcement will be made to improve the scheme with precautions and changes and it will be implemented soon,” Mr Kejriwal said.

The event, organised in North Delhi’s Chhatrasal Stadium, saw the participation of a large number of civil defence volunteers, AAP workers, and general public. Mr Kejriwal said the scheme could be successfully implemented as the government engaged the public in a “dialogue” instead of merely resorting to threats of penalty, which “would not have worked”.

“Around 20 lakh cars used to be on the roads daily during the duration of the scheme, but number of challans were around 100, 200 or 500. This is nothing. This means, almost 100 per cent people of Delhi followed the odd-even scheme and it became a movement. If we had put out an order that odd-even will be implemented from January 1 and cars of violators would be impounded, I don’t think we could have implemented the scheme successfully. People would have revolted against it,” he said.

Mr Rai claimed that 15 days of the odd-even scheme contributed to bringing down pollution in Delhi by more than 25 per cent.