Delhi govt blinks, rolls back its oddeven plan
Says it can’t do away with multiple exemptions
NEWDELHI: The Delhi government shelved its plan on Saturday to introduce a five-day road rationing arrangement after the National Green Tribunal denied exemption to two-wheeler riders and women. The drive would have mandated that vehicles with odd and even registration numbers ply on alternate days.
“We respect the NGT’s order, but the existing public transport system won’t be able to take the load of three million additional passengers who otherwise use two-wheelers,” Kailash Gahlot, state transport minister, said on Saturday. “Also, keeping women’s security in mind, the government has decided to call off the scheme for now.”
The Delhi government said it will approach the green tribunal again on Monday, and request that exemptions be granted to women drivers and two-wheeler users. Subject to the NGT decision, the Delhi government will “consider implementing it again”.
The government announced on Thursday that it would introexception. duce the odd-even drive from November 13 to 17, with pollution levels continuing to be “severe” for more than 48 hours.
However, it chose to retain the exemptions it allowed the last two times, to which the NGT took Of Delhi’s total vehicular population of over 10 million, twowheelers constitute around 6.3 million.
The NGT said vehicles contribute around 20% to the city’s pollution, of which nearly 30% comes from two-wheelers.
The air quality of Delhi-NCR, which touched emergency levels on Tuesday, improved significantly on Saturday.
The average AQI (air quality index) of Delhi, which was 468 on Friday and 486 on Thursday, dropped to 403 early on Saturday, the fifth consecutive day it stayed in the “severe” range.
The AQI level, however, shot up again on Saturday night, hitting 445 around 10pm.
Levels of particulate matter, which had been declining since Friday and came out of the emergency range on Saturday morning, also shot up at night and entered the emergency zone once again.