Odd-even scheme is set to make a comeback on April 15 this year after the Board examinations are over. The scheme will last for 16 days this time and will end on April 30. Unlike last time, however, schools will remain open during odd-even rerun, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday.
While the Government is planning to review the penalty amount for odd-even violations, all the 26 exemptions that were announced for the first edition of the scheme will stay this time as well, Kejriwal said. The Government is also planning to hire 500 retired Defence personnel to enforce the scheme as pressing SDMs for the same last time had led to halting of work in their offices.
The Government claimed that it has arrived at the decision after an “extensive feedback” from the public gathered through e-mail, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), website responses and mohalla sabhas. According to the survey, a vast majority of people wanted the scheme to be implemented as early as February 14, the day when AAP completes one year in power.
However, the Government decided to implement the scheme in April after the Board examinations.
“The first edition of odd-even from January 1 to 15 was successful because we had held consultation with public and had informed them about the scheme before implementing it… The scheme was successful in bringing down traffic congestion and pollution levels were also low. Ever since then, there was a demand to bring odd-even back. But before implementing it again, we wanted to gather views of the public,” said Kejriwal while announcing the dates of the scheme.
It must be noted, however, that while there was consensus on the impact of the scheme in curbing traffic congestion, there were contrasting reports on its impact on pollution levels. Many experts as well as pollution measuring agencies maintained that there was no significant reduction in the pollution levels due to the odd-even scheme.
While confirming the comeback of the ambitious car-rationing formula, Kejriwal said that a majority of people wanted the odd-even scheme to be implemented permanently, followed by those who wanted it to be implemented for 15 days every month.
“We held 276 mohalla sabhas, out of which, 275 supported odd-even formula. In one such mohalla sabha in Vishwasnagar, eight people opposed the idea while seven of them supported it. On websites, we got 29,076 responses. We got 1,13,142 missed call responses and 9,574 emails. Apart from that, we reached out to 2,15,538 people by IVR… Overall, 81 per cent people want odd-even scheme to be re-implemented,” Kejriwal said.
Interestingly, the Delhi Government had earlier claimed to have received 10 lakh calls on odd-even scheme. However, according to data shared by the Delhi Government on Thursday, just over 2 lakh “valid” calls were made out of which over 1.6 lakh supported the scheme. Out of the total 9.76 lakh calls, over 7.6 lakh calls either went unanswered or were disconnected.
Kejriwal further said that out of 23,000 responses received on the website, 92 per cent said that they will not buy a second car if the scheme is made a regular affair. “However, many people have opposed exemptions for the VIPs,” said Kejriwal adding that the Government has, however, decided to keep the exemptions.
“I keep being blamed for being confrontationist. But we won’t fight with the VIPs. We just request them to voluntarily follow even-odd scheme and show the way to general public like the Chief Justice of India did,” he said.
While claiming that most people want odd-even scheme to be back on a permanent basis, Kejriwal said, “We cannot make the scheme permanent until we improve the public transport system. To do that, we first need more buses and all categories of buses -- including luxury buses -- so that people who leave cars feel comfortable to travel in a bus. We expect to bring 1,000 new buses on the roads by May, another 1,000 by August and 1,000 by end of this year.”
He further said the government is also planning to build two-level elevated BRTs where buses will run on one level and other vehicles on the other.