Even, odd vehicles: Delhi government's new policy draws flak from city dwellers

New Delhi, Dec 4: The Delhi government's new decision to allow odd and even number vehicles to ply on city road on alternate days drew more flak from the citizens than appreciation, as they believe promoting the public transport would have been a much better step towards curbing the city's rising pollution.

The majority of the city dwellers IANS spoke to ideated that the new policy could have been tagged as anti-pollution only if the new norm was applicable to all vehicles including commercial ones.

They said the creation of new zones where only public transport could be allowed and not the private vehicles would have served the purpose in a much better way.

"What rubbish! Does the government even understand why most of the people use a private vehicles? Mostly people use cars to cut the long duration in buses and also avoid the number of buses needed to change. The easier way to curb pollution was to increase public transport for all routes, which would certainly prevent people from using private vehicles," said Rajeev Snehi, a sales manager, who travels to Noida every day from south Delhi through his car.

Bishwanath Vajpayee, a senior administrator at AIIMS, told IANS: "The policy may be good to some extent, but what if there is a person is out in his car during an emergency. 30 percent of the people use private vehicles cause there is a emergency. I do not endorse such norms in the name sake of curbing pollution. Will this policy be applicable for the Government vehicles also?"

The decision was taken at a meeting presided over by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and will not apply to CNG-driven buses, taxis and auto-rickshaws but will also cover vehicles entering Delhi from other states.

The sweeping move - like the one taken in Beijing in 2013 - will apply to a large bulk of the some 90 lakh vehicles registered in Delhi, where about 1,500 new vehicles are added every day.

George P. Verghese, who is working as an art director with a advertising firm, said: "This is absolutely not going to work. Such rule is working in China because their public transport system is much stronger as compared to Delhi. There are so many cars in Delhi roads, so it will be very difficult to keep a check for the public authorities (like government and traffic police)."

Many of the city dwellers also suggested that the new policy would increase their expenditure for travelling.

Nishi Bhatt, a 23-year-old working with an NGO in Kalindi Kunj, told IANS: "Even if i travelled by my private car it used to cost me only two-three thousand rupees every month, but now i will have to spend around five thousand rupees as there is no direct Delhi government buses to my office from North Campus, so hiring an auto will be the option."

Calling the new decision by the Delhi government a ridiculous one, Adtiyan Nair, a teacher of English in south Delhi's St. Mary's School, said: "If Government is so concerned about reducing pollution in Delhi then they should first keep a check on old vehicles and trucks which are responsible for polluting our city."

Nikita Bhaskar, manager at a private firm urged the government to improve and increase the Delhi government buses before making people travel in it.

However, youngsters in the city also suggested of implementing the policy in phase wise manner.

"I frequently use car and bikes and they both are registered with even numbers. So am I supposed to keep juggling between public transport and personal vehicle use every now and then? The government should have implemented it phase wise," Roshan Roy, who lives in west Delhi and part of a Delhi band, told IANS.

He also said the new decision would lead to illegal activities such as bribery to traffic police and possession of multiple number plates.

IANS