Days after Delhi Police denied permission to the Delhi Government to hold Car-Free Day on October 22 between the road-stretch from Red Fort to India Gate, Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai announced on Tuesday that the event will be held as planned though the route has been shortened. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is expected to lead the cycle rally to be held to kick off the event.
The Minister made the announcement after he met lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung to clarify that the event has already been cut short to make sure Dussehra celebrations are not affected. lt Governor Najeeb Jung supported the Government’s initiative and said police will make extra arrangements to hold such an event.
While confirming that the event will be held as planned in the stretch from Red Fort to Tilak lane, he added that the Government will invite the lt Governor, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar to support the event by taking part in the cycle rally.
“As Dusshera is on October 22, police has to make a lot of arrangements on that day. We know that there will be extra efforts and strain on police...I have spoken to Police Commissioner and Joint Police Commissioner (Traffic) and they have agreed to make extra efforts on that day (October 22),” Jung said.
In view of Dussehra, the Car Free Day will be held only from 7 am to 12 noon, instead of the whole day.
Jung further added that the campaign aims to make people understand that they should not drive their private cars and should use public transport instead. “If you do not run this drive continuously, this message will not go among the people. This is a very good initiative to make people aware on using their cars less and resort to public transport,” he said.
Police Commissioner BS Bassi had denied permission to the ruling AAP’s ambitious Car-Free Day proposal on Monday saying that it had not held “prior consultations” with the force before taking the decision in this regard.
In his meeting with the lt Governor, Gopal Rai reportedly asserted that an elected Government does not need to seek prior approval for holding such events. Rai later told the media that lt Governor agreed that neither is there need, nor an existing norm to seek such permission from the police, which only needs to be informed by the Government.
In his letter to Chief Secretary KK Sharma earlier this month, Police Commissioner BS Bassi had denied permission saying that the Government did not hold “prior consultation” with the force before taking any decision in this regard.
Bassi had also asked the Delhi Government to choose another suitable day to hold the event, as it was clashing with Dusshera celebrations, which warrants heavy security deployment.