Kejriwal seeks Transport Dept’s views on odd-even exemption
NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has directed the Transport Department to send its views on the issue of exemptions to be granted to specific segments of vehicles during the Odd-even period between November 4-15. The segments include women riders, two-wheelers, and CNG vehicles, all of which had been exempted previously.
When the Delhi government had implemented the scheme in 2016, all vehicles that had only women passengers were exempt from the rule. Reason being that women in city feel a sense of security in their own vehicles for travelling and should be permitted to take the safest mode of transport. As well as, all vehicles with women drivers and male school-going children wearing school uniforms were also exempt. The CM has directed the Transport department to consider the implementation of this exemption this year.
All two-wheelers had been exempt from the Odd Even scheme previously. This significantly helped manage traffic in the city. At the time the Delhi government believed then that with the capacity of the city’s buses and Metro rail, it was not possible to carry such a large number of people on the public transport network. The latest estimate for the number of two-wheelers that ply in Delhi is over 70 lakh. If twowheelers are not exempt, it will lead to over 35 lakh persons, other than lakhs of pillion riders, to switch to public transport every day.
All CNG vehicles had been permitted to play on roads on all days during the Odd-even scheme based on the fact that CNG vehicle emissions were substantially less polluting than diesel or petrol vehicles. However, there were reports of large-scale misuse of this exemption in the previous editions of Odd-even. The Chief Minister 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 Delhi CM has asked the department to consider whether there is any foolproof way of identifying genuine CNG vehicles and in the absence of such a methodology, what are the views of the department on the exemption granted to CNG vehicles. Kejriwal has asked the department to submit its views to him within the next 3 days on the three segments that were previously exempted.