‘What Are You Getting From Odd-Even,’ Supreme Court Asks Kejriwal Govt On Day 1 Of Car-Rationing Scheme

On day 1 of the launch of car-rationing scheme in Delhi, the Supreme Court asked the Aam Aadmi Party government the logic behind the odd-even scheme. “What is the logic behind odd-even scheme? Banning diesel vehicles we can understand, but what is the point of odd-even scheme,” Justice Arun Mishra asked the Delhi Government. With an aim to control the rapid growing pollution level, the Delhi government has rolled out the much-anticipated odd-even scheme from today. This will be the third time that the government has started the scheme aiming to curb the carbon emission. The scheme will be applicable from 8 am to 8 pm. It will not be effective on Sunday, November 10. The Delhi government has also decided to exempt electric vehicles from the odd-even road rationing scheme. Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot in a statement said that the number of registered electric vehicles in the city was less than 1,000 and they are not likely to cause any congestion. It has, therefore, been decided to exempt the electric vehicles from the odd-even restrictions," he said.

Under the scheme, vehicles having odd and even last digits of registration number will ply on odd and even dates, respectively. The scheme will conclude on November 15. The electric vehicles were not included in the list of exempted vehicles mentioned in the notification issued by the Delhi government for implementation of the odd-even scheme.

The Delhi Traffic Police, on the other hand, will deploy 200 teams for smooth implementation of the odd-even scheme. “We will deploy 200 teams across the city for smooth implementation of the odd-even scheme,” Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Taj Hassan said.            

According to officials, each team will consist of four traffic police personnel who will keep a tab on violators and take strict action them.

Violators will be punished with a fine of Rs 4,000. Traffic head constables and officials above, sub divisional magistrates and tehsildars, assistant traffic inspectors and ranks above in DTC have been authorised to issue challans to violators, officials said.

Under the scheme, which will be implemented from 8 am to 8 pm till November 15, non-transport four-wheeler vehicles with registration number ending in odd digit (1, 3, 5, 7 and 9) will be prohibited on November 4, 6, 8, 12 and 14.

Similarly, vehicles with registration number ending with even digit (0, 2, 4, 6, 8) will be prohibited on November 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15. These restrictions will also apply to the vehicles bearing registration numbers of other states.

Cab aggregators Ola and Uber have also said that they will not resort to surge pricing during the 12-day odd-even road rationing scheme.