Kejriwal seeks transport dept opinion on exempting women

NEW DELHI : Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday sought the transport department’s opinion on exemption to women, two wheelers and Cngrun vehicles in the third edition of the odd-even road space rationing scheme which is set to be implemented during November 4-15, the government said in a statement.

The transport department has been directed to respond to the chief minister’s office within three days after reviewing several aspects, including the current capacity of the public transport network, the government said.

Delhi’s transport minister Kailash Gahlot had earlier said that the government has plans to exempt these categories, like the two previous editions of the scheme in 2016. According to senior government officials, the chief minister has initiated a final review and the recent directions to are part of that.

Senior government officials said, Kejriwal has directed the department to consider the exemption to women as given earlier and share its views.

12-DAY SCHEME

During the 12-day scheme, vehicles will ply alternately on odd and even dates as per their registration numbers.

In the previous edition of the scheme, all two-wheelers, women drivers and Cng-run vehicles had been exempted from the scheme.

The statement issued by the government said that in 2016, the rationale was that women in Delhi feel a sense of security in their own vehicles for travelling and should be permitted to take the safest mode of transport.

The latest estimate for the number of two-wheelers that ply in Delhi is over 70 lakh. If two wheelers are not exempted, it will lead to over 35 lakh persons, other than lakhs of pillion riders, to switch to public transport every day, the statement said.

On exemption to Cng-run vehicles, the government said, their emissions are substantially less polluting than diesel or petrol vehicles.

The CM is concerned that the scheme may fail to achieve its purpose if people bypass the restrictions by using wrongfully procured CNG stickers to evade punishment, the statement said.

The chief minister believes that there is a need to balance the goals for which odd-even scheme is being implemented with the genuine needs of some segments of the population that use private vehicle, the government said in the statement.