less than 24 hours after his decision to allow private vehicles with odd and even registration numbers in the national Capital only on alternate days from January 1, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal did a volte face after facing flak from all quarters. Kejriwal said it will be tried out for a limited period and it will be stopped if there are problems galore.
With experts and Opposition parties questioning the practicability of the scheme, Kejriwal said many things were yet to be thrashed out, including exemptions for certain private vehicles and it was a decision taken in principle which will be “thought through”.
“In principle, a decision has been taken. Many things are yet to be thrashed out... We will experiment with it for some time. let’s try for a few days, a week to ten days. Maybe for 15 days. If there is much trouble it will be stopped. Or will implement it 15 days later by learning from the experience. There are several options,” Kejriwal said. “We thought a lot about the decision we made on Friday on cars with even and odd number plates plying on alternate days… Media picked only odd-even number plate announcement we made, ignored other announcements,” he said at the Hindustan Times leadership Summit 2015.
Kejriwal said his Government had planned to introduce the scheme at a later stage after strengthening the public transport system but was forced to take the drastic step following “panic” in the wake of the Delhi High Court’s observation that the city has become a “gas chamber”. “A sort of panic was created that the pollution has increased so much that something drastic has to be done,” he explained.
Seeking to assuage concerns, Kejriwal said his Government would not allow the people to be inconvenienced. “We thought when we will be prepared at that level (elevated bus corridor), we will start imposing some kind of restrictions on private vehicles like cars. This emergency situation that has come now, I think for its cooling down, if not anything else at least for a few days cars will have to be removed from the streets,” he said.
It is noted that an elevated East-West corridor was planned by erstwhile Sheila Dikshit Government in 2010 but the same was put on hold due to pressure from BRT corridor support group in the Government. The Chief Minister said apart from the elevated corridor for buses, he had thought of redesigning roads, augmenting public transport by bringing at least 10,000 buses before introducing restrictive measures.
Insiders say that the Delhi Government had announced its decisions without consulting traffic police (which is implementing agency) and traffic experts in the national capital.
On Friday, the Delhi Government had announced that vehicles with licence plates ending in odd numbers will be allowed to ply one day, followed by those with even numbers the following day from January 1 , -a move to curb vehicular emissions that have earned the Indian capital notoriety as the world’s most polluted city. The move would have affected an estimated 88 lakh vehicles - 28 lakh cars and 56 lakhs motorcycles and scooters - registered in Delhi. Many thousand more vehicles registered in towns outside the capital, such as Gurgaon (Haryana) and Noida (Uttar Pradesh), that commute daily to the city would also go off the roads every alternate day.
“lots of agencies need to be brought on board. Exceptions need to be put in place. We are strengthening PUC certificate testing and introducing new features so that this testing cannot be cheated. Camera traps will be put which will catch cars with PUC certificate stickers,” he said.
Talking about initiatives taken by his Government to tackle pollution, Kejriwal said vacuum cleaning on all PWD roads will begin from April 1 and grass will be planted on side kerbs and central verges of all the arterial roads to remove dust. He said tenders will be floated very soon to procure vacuum cleaners from abroad as such machines are not available here. The Chief Minister said Euro 6 emission norms will be implemented in Delhi from 2017 as against Centre’s plan to make it mandatory from 2019. “Erring vehicles will be penalised heavily.” The Chief Minister said no truck will be allowed to enter Delhi before 11 pm in the night against existing 9 pm.
On his relationship with the Centre, Kejriwal talked about “constant interference” by the Central Government and said some problems are political while some are constitutional. “You need your space to be able to govern. Some problems are political and some problems are constitutional,” he said. Asked about his experience in Government, Kejriwal said “Governance is not rocket science. But day-to-day interference completely saps you. “All I want is freedom to take my decisions. I don’t even want credit for it. PM Modi can take all the credit.” He also said lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung was creating hurdles in the functioning of his Government. “The lG is sitting like a headmaster and saying I declare your order null and void.” The Delhi CM also slammed the Delhi Police, saying they don’t cooperate with the AAP Government.
On bureaucracy, he said they used to face lot of difficulties earlier but are happy now. “People in bureaucracy are good. They are happy with our Government. They’re happy now that there is no interference,” Kejriwal said.