Yogi Govt U-turn on Odd-Even

There was a curious flipflop in the UP government on Monday: a minister in the Yogi government announced on a TV channel that they propose to implement Arvind Kejriwal’s much hyped odd-even formula to reduce the vehicular traffic, only to backtrack within an hour when he clarified, “Odd-even will not be implemented.”

The minister in question was Dara Singh, UP’s low-profile environment minister.

On the TV channel, he went on to say, “The decision to implement the oddeven formula was taken in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The road transport department and the state police have been apprised of the matter.”

While the minister’s sudden announcement surprised citizens, many felt that the Yogi government was finally doing its bit to grapple with the menace. However, much to everyone’s dismay, Singh took an abrupt U-turn. He also went incommunicado after the gaffe. Interestingly, Yogi had chaired a meeting related to pollution on Friday but no details were shared with the press. Many citizens complained that they had been left to fend for themselves. The political buzz was that the minister had to backtrack following objections from his own colleagues.

Perhaps the fact that the BJP has been opposing the odd-even formula of the Aam Admi Party in Delhi had a bearing on the matter, which came to a head on Monday with party leader Vijay Goel being fined for driving an “even” numbered car on the “odd” day. A BJP leader admitted, “Odd-even in UP would make the Delhi unit a laughing stock, especially in the run-up to the Delhi Assembly elections. The extent of toxicity can be gauged from the fact that Baghpat has been dubbed by the Central Pollution Board as the most polluted city in India with Air Quality Index of 500.