The AAP government in the national capital confirmed on Saturday that the car-rationing odd-even scheme is not likely to be extended beyond the stipulated trial period.
Delhi transport minister Gopal Rai asserted that the government has no intention of taking the road-rationing experiment beyond January 15. The pilot plan for cutting vehicular emissions was launched on January 1.
Mr Rai said confusion was also being spread that the plan was illegally imposed by the government. He claimed that under Section 115 of the Motor Vehicles Act, they have the power to implement this scheme as such provisions were also made during the Commonwealth Games as per this law.
“Government is neither going to extend the odd-even scheme beyond January 15 nor finish it before the 15-day trial period,” Mr Rai said here, terming media reports about extending the car-rationing scheme as “false”.
He said the traffic restriction is only for 15 days and after the trial period the government will study the data collected and do a proper analysis, adding it will then be able to take a final decision. Mr Rai, who held a meeting at his residence of the coordination committee with officials concerned with the scheme, said from January 1-8 the traffic police, transport and revenue departments had issued 5,893 challans for violation of odd-even rules. “Out of this number, 2,912 challans were issued by SDMs and 2,260 by traffic police. Besides, the enforcement wing of the transport department has issued 721 challans for violating odd-even rules so far,” he said.
Apart from this, 1,943 challans were issued by the transport department to auto drivers for different violations, including refusal to drive passengers.
The government has also received 13,528 calls on its two helplines in the last one week and most of them were related to queries about the scheme. Of these calls, 395 were related to complaints against bus and auto drivers, and other issues.
According to the minister, in view of the rush on some stretches of road during peak hours, the government has decided to deploy additional transport department and traffic police teams to manage traffic there from Monday. The areas include, ITO, Ring Road, Outer Ring Road, Connaught Place, Mathura Road, Ashram, New Friends Colony, Nehru Place, Sarai Kale Khan, Hanuman Mandir Marg and Dhaula Kuan.
“Government has also decided on close monitoring of the assigned works of civil defence volunteers. Teams of SDMs have also been formed in this regard,” he said.
The fate of the odd-even vehicle scheme will be decided on January 11 by the Delhi high court which on Friday had reserved its order on various pleas challenging the AAP government’s ambitious pilot project. A bench comprising Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath reserved their order after the Delhi government informed it that the pollution level of particulate matter across the national capital showed a declining trend due to implementation of the scheme.
