Rs 4,000 fine for odd-even violation, vehicles with school children to be exempted

The scheme will be applicable from 8 am to 8 pm, except on Sundays. Violations of the odd-even scheme will incur a fine of Rs 4,000, the chief minister  said at a press conference in the national capital Delhi.

Two-wheelers and vehicles carrying school children will be exempt from the odd-even, road-rationing scheme to be implemented next month, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday. He also added that vehicles carrying patients will be allowed on “trust basis”.

The scheme will be implemented in the national capital from November 4 to 15 in an attempt to reduce vehicular emissions and curb air pollution, which rises during this time of the year because of stubble burning by farmers in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana.

The scheme will be applicable from 8 am to 8 pm, except on Sundays.

The government had earlier exempted women driving alone and “cars having all women as occupants”.

Private vehicles running on CNG, which were exempt during the previous two occasions when the rule was implemented, will be covered under the scheme that will remain in force for 12 days.

Beginning November 4, vehicles with licence plates ending in odd and even numbers will be allowed on alternate days on the streets of the capital.

Violations of the odd-even scheme will incur a fine of Rs 4,000, the chief minister  said at a press conference in the national capital.

Kejriwal said vehicles from other states entering the city will come under the purview of the scheme.

The chief minister said all Delhi ministers and its staffers will come under the ambit of the odd-even drive.

“There will be no exemption for us or any Delhi government official. Only vehicles of the transport department and other enforcement agencies will be exempted. However, we are exempting all union ministers (central government), the President and Prime Minister, chief ministers of other states and the LG of Delhi and governors of other states,” Kejriwal said.

Kejriwal said to augment public transport during the drive, the Delhi Cabinet on Thursday cleared a proposal to hire 2,000 private buses of different sizes. These will be in addition to over 5,500 state-run buses that are operational in the city.

But as he laid out the ground rules for the road rationing scheme, the Aam Aadmi Party chief also underscored that toxic air emanating in the national capital was only one part of the pollution problem. The other, he said, was air pollution from neighbouring states, particularly because of stubble burning.

He stressed that it was wrong to apportion blame for air pollution on the people of Delhi alone. The fact is that the people of Delhi have taken “harsh measures” to reduce air pollution. There had, however, not been a corresponding effort to curb external sources of pollution.

Different studies, he said, had come up with divergent figures on the proportion of pollutants in Delhi because of stubble burning, That percentage varies from 1% to 10%, he said.

“Today, the truth is that it is impossible to attribute pollution to internal and external factors,” he said, adding that this would change from next April when sensors installed in different parts of the city would be able to give a break-up of the source of pollution.

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