Delhi odd-even plan: Rs 2,000 fine for violations once a day, no repeats

Volunteers won’t act independently and will be attached to either SDMs, traffic police

The Delhi government on Tuesday decided to withdraw its earlier order to impose repeated fines of '2,000 for each violation by motorists in the course of a day during curbs on plying of private vehicles in the city from January 1.

The government, instead, decided the violators of the odd-even curbs will be penalised '2,000 once a particular day during the 15-day trial run of the new rules being imposed to lower pollution levels in the city. Vehicles of the violators will also not be impounded.

The decision was announced after city police commissioner B.S. Bassi had a marathon meeting with transport minister Gopal Rai on Tuesday evening to discuss the strategy to implement the curbs and ensure smooth flow of traffic in the city.

Mr Bassi and Mr Rai deliberated on how to ensure coordination between the Delhi police and the city government for effective enforcement of the ambitious scheme. Mr Rai revealed that the police commissioner’s request had led the Delhi government to reverse its earlier decision of slapping fine of '2,000 on offenders each time they got caught violating the scheme during the course of the day.

Well-placed sources said if this scheme is successful, the AAP government may even extend it further. The Delhi government, on its part, will hold a dry run on Wednesday to ensure public transport system is in place to meet the additional rush of commuters. The dry run has exempted private vehicles from being penalised.

Holding a joint press conference, both Mr Rai and Mr Bassi said that the decision to penalise the violators once was taken so that the vehicular movement was not hampered. “We do not have authority to impound vehicles and also have a space crunch for these vehicles. So, a decision was taken to issue fines once and the penalised motorists be allowed to return home,” the minister said.

[“In the meeting with special commissioner (traffic) Muktesh Chander yesterday, it was decided to impose a fine of '2,000 each time the rule is violated during the course of a day. However, the police commissioner today urged the government not to challan violators repeatedly, saying action can be taken in the second phase of scheme. In view of the police commissioner’s request, government decided to reverse the decision,” Mr Rai told PTI.]

On January 1, only vehicles with odd numbered registration plates will be allowed on the Delhi roads. On the next day, even number vehicles can ply and the same will continue in rotation till January 15. Clarifying that AAP volunteers will not be out on the streets, Mr Rai said that only civil defence volunteers will assist the police and the government authorities in enforcing the scheme.

Denying that implementation of the scheme was an uphill task for the Delhi police, Mr Bassi said that the curbs were just an addition to the daily traffic management and enforcement in the city. “The scheme is just an addition of a minor facet that the odd numbered vehicles do not ply on the even days and vice versa. We provided some suggestions to the minister on the implementation of the scheme and it was then mutually decided that the volunteers would not be acting independently on the roads and will assist the Delhi police personnel, SDMs or the officials with the transport department to mange traffic. Around 5,000 volunteers will be given to us for our disposal,” he said.

Striking a positive note, Mr Bassi added that the AAP government’s ambitious initiative will provide the Delhi police an opportunity to curb not just traffic, but also pollution. He also appealed to the citizens to assist the police and the government during the 15-day trial run.

The odd-even scheme will be rolled out on January 1, initially for a period of 15 days and the Delhi government expects around six lakh vehicles to go off the roads each day. A trial run of the scheme will be conducted for two hours from 9 am to 11 am on December 31. Mr Rai said volunteers to be deployed by the government will be tasked to create awareness about the campaign on major crossings and that they will not be authorised to stop any vehicles.

“66 enforcement teams of the transport department will be deployed at various places including Metro stations, railway stations and hospitals to ensure that auto drivers do not fleece commuters,” Mr Rai said.

He said it has been clarified to the representatives of the police that only civil defence volunteers will be deployed along with NCC and NSS cadres, who will work in close coordination with traffic police and revenue authorities.

“Their main role will be to create awareness on major crossings and they will carry placards and will not be authorised to stop any vehicles,” Mr Rai said.

The minister said checking teams will be deployed on wider road sand not in the vicinity of crossings so there is no disruption in the traffic. Special commissioner of police (traffic) and divisional commissioner will coordinate in respect of 120 traffic points to deploy teams. “Tomorrow, all civil volunteers have to attend a briefing session at Chhatrasal Stadium at 12 noon so as to be aware about their specific role in the programme,” he said.

The minister said all sub-divisional magistrates will have the power to issue challans. It was decided in the meeting that volunteers with teams of civil defence personnel will take rounds of certain areas and video record movement of vehicles wherever necessary.

Fifty special buses for Noida and Gurgaon each will be pressed into service during implementation of the odd-even scheme. DTC has already added 3,000 buses as part of efforts to augment public transport. “DTC has been asked to make special effort to ensure that maintenance of buses is done either during the night time or on Sundays and should minimise the break down. The buses should stop at designated bus stops,” Mr Rai said, adding a marshal will be deployed by DTC onboard each bus taken from private schools.

The minister said nodal officers will be deployed from various concerned agencies to oversee implementation of the scheme. The city government has already tied up with Twitter to make available real-time information about available public transport for the commuters.