The Delhi Government is all set to enforce the fortnight-long second phase of the odd-even scheme in the national Capital from Friday. As many as 2,000 traffic personnel, 580 enforcement officials and over 5,000 civil defence volunteers will be deployed to check the violation. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has sought people’s cooperation for its success.
The odd-even plan for four-wheelers will continue till April 30 between 8 am and 8 pm, except on Sundays.
Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai said on Thursday that the enforcement plan has been chalked out under which the city has been divided into 11 zones for the implementation of the scheme. Each zone will have 10 sectors and one mobile enforcement team each will operate in each of these sectors.
“An enforcement plan has been devised and 588 officials from Delhi Transport Department’s enforcement wing will be deployed after being divided into teams during the operation of the scheme. Also, a 20-member Special Task Force has been set up to look into matters reported by the mobile teams,” said Rai.
He added the enforcement teams have a ten-point focus chart which comprises areas near ISBTs, railway stations, health institutions, trade centres, district courts, city borders, education institutions, major traffic intersections, IGI Airport and crowded office buildings.
As many as 2,000 officials of Delhi Traffic Police will be deployed on roads. The traffic department has identified 200 intersections in the city where their personnel will be deployed in teams, with their sizes depending upon the volume of traffic in those intersections.
Apart from enforcement officials and traffic personnel, 5,331 civil defence volunteers will also be deployed at 205 strategic points in the national Capital to ensure implementation of the scheme. In the last phase (January 1-15), around 4,000 of such volunteers were pressed into service, Rai said. Also, 321 wardens have been entrusted with the duty of ensuring coordination between volunteers and the Government, he said.
This time, vehicles with both odd and even registration numbers carrying students in school uniform will be exempted as also the vehicles being driven by women with women or children as passengers.
However, the Minister said the Government has not been able to find a solution to the problem of cars picking up children after school hours during vehicle rationing scheme. But parents have raised apprehensions over the fate of the cars going to pick them up.
Referring to a recently conducted study by the Government, Rai said that when it comes to picking up children after the school hours, around 85 per cent drivers are women, who are already exempted under the scheme. For the remaining, people should resort to carpooling.
When asked why a CNG sticker or certification-like arrangement could not be made for such cars, Rai said that monitoring of such a task was not possible at the moment.
He said many complaints were received in connection with CNG stickers during and after the last phase of odd-even scheme due to which the Government has cut down the list of CNG stations from where the stickers can be availed to only one this time. There are over 3,000 schools in the city and there are high chances of a scam in case any certification-like arrangement was made.
“At this moment, it is not possible to set up a monitoring system for that,” the Minister said. Rai said the Government has also arranged for adequate supply of drinking water, lemonade, caps, umbrellas and special ambulances for the volunteers facing the scorching heat during the period.
He said that 10 CCTVs have been installed at specific intersections to monitor vehicular movement during the fortnight. AAP government is also holding meeting with Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) and NGOs for convincing the people to follow the scheme.