Transport Minister Gopal Rai on Saturday trashed reports that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government was planning to extend its odd-even experiment beyond the January 15 deadline.
At a press conference here, Mr. Rai also cleared the air in relation to what he termed “confusion” about its “illegal imposition” by the government, stating that it fell well within the jurisdiction of Section 115 of the Motor Vehicle (MV) Act, similar provisions of which had been utilised by the then Congress-led Delhi government for the creation of an exclusive lane meant to cater solely to Commonwealth Games traffic in the year 2010.
“The government is neither going to extend the scheme beyond January 15 nor rescind it before January 15, as was announced earlier,” Mr. Rai said, adding that media reports hinting the opposite were “false”.
Speaking to TheHindu later in the day, the Transport Minister said the government will stick to its guns on the matter as pollution and enforcement-related data generated over implementation of the experiment a little over a fortnight will form the core of anti-pollution measures to be taken by the AAP government in the future.
“Data related to both pollution and congestion is very encouraging. We will use this to shape future policies related to reducing both in the coming days after a meticulous analysis of the same,” he said.
Mr. Rai had, during the day, presided over a meeting of the coordination committee for the initiative, held at his Civil Lines residence. Following this, he released data which stated that from January 1 to 8, enforcement teams comprising traffic police in addition to the Transport and Revenue Departments had issued 5,893 challans for violation of its various regulations.
(Enforcement-related data generated over implementation of the experiment a little over a fortnight will form the core of anti-pollution measures to be taken by the AAP government.— File Photo: AP)
“Of these, 2,912 challans were issued by SDMs and 2,260 by traffic police. Besides, enforcement wing of the Transport Department has issued 721 challans for violating of the odd-even rules so far,” he said.
The Minister added that apart from these, 1,943 challans were issued by the Transport Department to auto drivers for different violations, including refusal to ferry passengers.
The government has also received 13,528 calls on its two helplines in the past one week and most of them were related to queries about the scheme. Of these calls, 395 were related to complaints against buses, auto drivers, and other issues.
Meanwhile, the Minister said the government had decided to utilise the funds generated through cash fines imposed on violators to subsidise cycles in a bid to popularise and promote their usage in the Capital.
“It has been decided to give subsidy on purchase of cycles using the money collected through challans for odd-even violations. The government aims at motivating people to use cycles as part of the comprehensive drive to make Delhi pollution-free,” he said, adding that cycles could provide a well-needed alternative to two-wheeler drivers like bikers, especially for small household chores such as grocery shopping.
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