Private vehicles pulled off roads as judges hit out over Delhi smog
● More than a million cars will be banned every day under new rules
Authorities have restricted many private vehicles from the roads of India’s capital amid a public health crisis that has left New Delhi residents gasping and their eyes burning from toxic air pollution.
The “odd-even” scheme will restrict private vehicles with odd-number licence plates to driving on odd dates, while even-numbered plates are allowed on even-numbered dates. It was started days after authorities began emergency control measures and ordered schools to close as pollution levels reached a three-year high.
The state-run central pollution control board’s air quality index for New Delhi was “severe” at 436 – about nine times the recommended maximum.
Air pollution in New Delhi and northern Indian states peaks in the winter as farmers in neighbouring agricultural regions set fire to clear land after the harvest and prepare for the next crop season.
The pollution in the capital also peaks after Diwali celebrations, the Hindu festival of light, when people set off fireworks.
Some people distraught over the pollution said they wanted to leave the city of more than 20 million people due to its poor air quality.
Resident Divyam Mathur said: “I feel like moving out as well because I’m young and I’m still on a stage of building up my life and my career.”
Traffic police, wearing protective masks, signalled cars to stop for not following the vehicle restrictions introduced yesterday.
New Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal appealed for residents to follow the rule and for private taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers to support it.
Authorities said almost 1.2 million registered vehicles in New Delhi would be off the road every day during the twoweek restrictions.
“I don’t think this odd-even scheme will do anything,” said Ajay Jasra, a New Delhi resident. “It’s mostly the stubble burning in the states of Punjab and Haryana which contributes to the pollution and industrial pollution is also high.”
The vehicle restrictions have been the Aam Aadmi Party-led city government’s pet project to fight air pollution.
The scheme was implemented twice in 2016 but remained controversial as critics have debated its impact.
Vehicle and industrial emissions, pollutants from firecrackers and construction dust sharply increased each winter, exacerbating the public health crisis.
Last year the New Delhi government ordered firefighters to sprinkle water from high-rise buildings to settle dust, stopped rubbish fires and ordered builders to cover construction sites to stop dust enveloping the area as hazardous air quality affected millions.
World Health Organisation data published last year gave India the dubious distinction of having the world’s ten most polluted cities.
India’s supreme court, meanwhile, yesterday sought accountability from state governments over the deteriorating air quality, saying the capital was choking every year, which “could not be allowed in a civilised country”.
The court’s special bench was hearing pollution matters and ordered the New Delhi government to produce data or records to prove the vehicle restrictions have reduced pollution.
The court also banned construction or demolition activities in the capital until further orders.
“This can’t go on,” the court said. “People aren’t safe even inside their houses and rooms.”
Supreme court justice Arun Misha said: “Delhi is choking every year and we are unable to do anything. The state machinery is not acting ... they are passing the buck to each other.
“Everybody is interested in gimmicks and elections.”