Will scrap odd-even car rule if people face problems: CM

NEW DELHI: A day after the Delhi government announced that odd and even numbered vehicles will be allowed to ply on alternate days from January 1, CM Kejriwal said on Saturday that it was an experiment to deal with the "emergency situation" in the city and could be discontinued if people faced major problems.
For now, the AAP government is sticking to January 1 as the target date for the rollout though the CM acknowledged a lot of groundwork was needed.This was among a series of measures announced at a meeting chaired by the CM on Friday after the National Green Tribunal pulled up the government for failing to curb air pollution.
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Referring to some tweets that the move should have been thought through before the announcement, Kejriwal said, "What remains to be decided is whether the 'thought through' period should be 20 days or three months. We want to do it in 20 days. We have to talk to many agencies involved. In a day or two, we will come out with ads seeking suggestions from public. We will do as the people say."
He was speaking at a city event. The government is being cautious about implementing the plan which has got a mixed reaction from the city.
Kejriwal said the government will prepare a detailed plan in the next few days. For this, the state has formed a committee comprising the transport commissioner and principal secretaries of departments of revenue and finance besides others. "We have given an in-principle approval to this plan. Many things need to be sorted out. We have to talk to the police and the central government. We will not do anything which will cause inconvenience to public," he assured. "We will try to implement it for a few days or a week or 10-15 days. Many kind of exemptions need to be given to vehicles like ambulances. We will discontinue it if there are major problems and we will do it again after a gap. There are several options," he said.
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He said the government would have otherwise implemented a long-term plan after creating adequate public transport facilities in Delhi. "We were planning dedicated elevated bus corridors, like the Metro, across Delhi. We were planning to construct bus corridors which can be used by both public and private buses. It has been done in some countries. We were planning to impose this restriction on vehicles like cars then. But now there is an emergency situation. To cool it down, we will have to do something. We will have to take some vehicles off the road," he said.
Kejriwal also spoke about the government's plans to centrally monitor the system for issuing Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates to vehicles. "At present, people get these certificates by paying extra money. It was basically a fraud that was going on. We have linked all PUC centres with the central server and central control room. Now, the actual reading will reflect at the central server. One will get a printout (certificate) only if the level is under control. We will take one to one-and-a-half-months to enforce it. We want to give adequate time to people to get the certificates before we enforce it," said Kejriwal.
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The government also plans to install cameras at strategic locations for catching vehicles which don't have PUC certificates. This will take at least two-three months.
After the "phenomenal" success of its Swachh Delhi mobile application, the CM plans to use it for checking environmental pollution too. Soon, people will be able to take photographs of waste being burnt or of polluting vehicles. "You can upload the pictures. Strict action will be taken against the offenders. Just upload the photograph of the polluting vehicle along with its number plate and we will take strict action against the owner," said Kejriwal.
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The government also plans to implement the Euro-VI emission norms in Delhi from January 1, 2017, as against the Centre's plan to implement it by 2019.
To control dust pollution, the state government plans to develop green areas on roadsides and vacuum-clean city roads. "From April 1, 2016, city roads will be vacuum-cleaned. The green patches along the roads will help in controlling dust pollution," said the CM.