Will spend more on odd-even ads, it’s a matter of people’s lives: Rai
NEW DELHI: The Delhi government will give “more” advertisements on the odd-even scheme, transport minister Gopal Rai said Monday, noting that all the money required for the road rationing programme will be spent as it is a matter of people’s life.
Reacting to BJP’s charge that the AAP government was spending “huge” funds on odd-even advertisements, he said, “We are not doing it for ourselves, we are doing it for the people of Delhi. We will advertise it even more and spend all the money required for odd-even scheme because it is a matter of people’s life in Delhi.”
Rai, who took a bus tour to assess implementation of the scheme on first working day of the week since it started on April 15, claimed that most of the parents felt no problem in ferrying their children to school.
“The reports so far indicate that 90 % parents smoothly ferried their school going-children but some people may face problems. I urge parents, specially women, to help one another and drop other children to their homes,” he said.
Without strengthening public transport system, it was not possible to cover all people under the programme, he said.
5,000 DTC BUSES
The DTC on Monday ran around 5,000 buses to help commuters on the first full working day in the fortnight long odd-even road rationing scheme.
A total of 4,497 buses including 4,029 buses from DTC fleet and 468 ‘Paryavaran Sewa’ buses hired by it for the second phase of the plan, were pressed into service, a senior transport department official.
On the first two days, the ridership figures had stood at 36.84 lakh and 38.94 lakh respectively, he said.