Cant odd-even drive be cut to a week: Delhi High Court

Terming as “vague” the status report submitted by the government on implementation of the scheme, the court sought information about the pollution caused by taxis running on diesel and CNG which have been kept out of the purview of the odd-even formula. It also sought data related to changes in the pollution level between January 1 and 7, the day the scheme will have completed a week. 

“There is no sufficient public transport. Is it really necessary to have it for 15 days?” asked the bench. “We have permitted the government to run this scheme for one week during which they must have collected data relating to pollution levels in the city,” a division bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath said. 

Hearing a clutch of petitions against the scheme, the court said though it does not interfere with the policies the government must think about it as people are knocking on its door complaining about inconvenience being caused to them. The next hearing has been fixed on January 8. 

Opposing the petitioners, senior standing counsel Rahul Mehra said “The scheme is only for 15 days and the state is equally pained by the inconvenience being caused to public.”  

Ecologists and urban planners contend while hostile weather conditions may be limiting the gains, odd-even scheme would definitely restrict the peak levels from spiralling out of hand. 

Raj Cherubal of Chennai City Project said lesser conges wtion has proven that “there is space” on Delhi’s roads for buses and measures like BRTS. Shreya Gadipalli of Institute for Transportation and Development Policy said the policy has created a platform “for a dialogue”. Anumita Roychowdhury of Centre for Science and Environment said that a sharp drop of pollutants from the peak levels has been observed over the last few days.