Move likely to overburden agencies with work pressure
Move likely to overburden agencies with work pressure
The Delhi police on Saturday said that it will prepare the action plan in connection with the odd-even formula, restricting the plying of private vehicles in the national capital, only after the AAP government comes up with the final draft of the policy.
Top cop Bhim Sain Bassi said, “We will wait till December 25 for the policy and then prepare an action plan. If we feel the need to understand some points or seek clarification, that shall be done too. But unless the policy comes, we won’t prepare an action plan.” “We are taking notes on regular discussions being held in connection with the matter (odd-even formula). Once the policy is prepared, we shall proceed,” he added.
Senior Delhi police officials had earlier said that the implementing body (the police) cannot prosecute people in connection with the said formula unless the matter is incorporated into some law — either the Motor Vehicles Act or CrPC.
Such exercise was taken up during the Commonwealth Games in 2010, when lanes were reserved for delegates to move, in designated routes, and penalties were imposed for driving in those lanes by a special provision in the Motor Vehicles Act, said a senior official.
It was on December 8, five days after the announcement of the odd-even formula by the AAP government, that the Delhi police was formally approached and the scheme was communicated to them in a high-level meeting chaired by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and attended by all Cabinet ministers.
Meanwhile, despite assurance by Mr Kejriwal that the Centre and the Delhi police have agreed to support the much debated odd-even scheme, sources in the traffic police believe that it would be a mammoth task which will burden the enforcement agencies, especially the Delhi police, with unprecedented work pressure.
A highly placed source in the traffic police, on condition of anonymity, said: “There is already a shortage of more than 4,000 traffic police officials in Delhi, about which the ministries have been told several times,” adding, “Such ambitious decisions require proficient levels of coordination, which is completely abse-nt between the AAP government and the Delhi police.”
“With such acute dearth of staff in the traffic department, the implementation of odd-even scheme will certainly over burden the Delhi police in ways that has never happened before.” The source added, “Such ambitious decisions require proficient levels of coordination, which is completely absent between the AAP government and the Delhi police.”
Evidently, the Delhi government and the Delhi police has been drawing swords against each other ever since the AAP government has returned to power. On several occasions the AAP government has blamed the Delhi police for acting at the behest of the BJP-led Central government. The Delhi police has booked and arrested five AAP legislators so far. The face-off between the two had reached the doorstep of Delhi top cop Bhim Sain Bassi last week with the party accusing him of misusing his position to acquire a flat in Rohini area, the allegations which Mr Bassi had angrily dismissed and had blamed the AAP government of unnecessarily targeting him.
Amid such skepticism, the sources added, it would be extremely difficult to implement the odd-even scheme.
The traffic police officials also pointed out that with no concrete framework on paper so far it could be difficult to execute the plan from January 1. “It may lead to more chaos, especially in the peak hours, as the number of violators in the initial days are expected to be in large numbers,” said the traffic police officials, adding, “By stopping every one of them would lead to traffic jams and may lead to more chaos than betterment.”
