Delhiites To Live With Odd-Even Formula

Delhi Diary By M.Santhiran M.Santhiran, Bernama's correspondent in New Delhi shares his take on India. NEW DELHI, Dec 15 (Bernama) -- The people of New Delhi will have to live with the odd-even formula introduced by the state government to reduce the number of private vehicles on the roads in India's capital city. Under the formula announced by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, effective Jan 1,2016, cars will be allowed on the roads of New Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) on alternate days based on odd or even registration numbers. While the environmental groups revelled over the announcement, the move has put the city's almost 20 million population and more than 7.0 million motorised vehicles in a dilemma. The city also took another drastic measure, close down two major power plants operating on 'dirty coal' despite of the regular power shortages. For the government, the move is seen as unavoidable as New Delhi now has taken over Beijing as the most polluted city in the world. Even Indian supreme court judge Arun Mishra had described Delhi as the "gas chamber" of India following poor air quality recorded over the past few weeks. Even Kejriwal's political rival, Barathiya Janata Party (BJP) applauded the move and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to put aside the political differences and offer support for the state government's initiative. Chief Justice of India T. S Thakur also welcomed the move. He was quoted by major dailies here as saying that 'all is not well in Delhi'. CRITICS CALL BETTER PUBLIC TRANSPORT PRIOR THE BAN Though the critics of the state government agreed on the drastic actions, they pointed out that much more had to be done to improve the city's public transport system and infrastructure in the first place. They said even the proposal of closing down two major power plants clearly were not the best option, since the city has been facing frequent power failures. They said the aging city buses and auto rickshaws had to be looked into with the city's Metro Train System already hitting its maximum capacity of nearly 1.2 million passengers each day. Main opposition party, the Congress party quickly hit out at Kejriwal government's move as just "knee-jerk reaction" after the World Health Organisation (WHO) listed New Delhi top in the list of most polluted cities of the world. Congress and the union government said that the state government had failed to engage with all the stakeholders before coming up with a much more comprehensive plan. KEJRIWAL CONFIDENT ON ODD-EVEN FORMULA However, Kejriwal was upbeat with chief justice and environmental groups, committed with his odd-even formula considered the best answer to reduce number of vehicles on the roads in the Indian capital city. He believed that the formula could also be used at other major cities in India, which were also severely affected by air pollution. To proof his government's commitment, within days of announcing the formula, an announcement was made that an additional 4,000 public buses would be made available effective Jan 1. The chief minister also said better enforcement on auto rickshaw operators would be carried out to ensure they don't flout the formula. However, one of the leading daily here, Times of India was sceptical over Kejriwal's formula as many of the vehicle owners were staunch supporters of his Aam Admi Party (AAP) that rules the state. Anyway AAP that came into power in February might not be making much headway in tackling corruption but might witness majority of Delhiites joining hands with his government in improving the quality of life in the capital city. -- BERNAMA