It would have led to chaos and anarchy: CM on why plan spared two-wheelers

ODD-EVEN 2.0

ADDRESSING THE perennial query on why two-wheelers had been exempted from the oddeven rule, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Tuesday said if these vehicles were also taken off the roads, it would have “led to complete anarchy” due to the additional pressure on public transport. The decision was not taken due to vote-bank policies, said the chief minister.

Kejriwal made the comments while speaking at a symposium on ‘Right to Clean Air’ organised by the Centre for Science and Environment and SHAKTI Foundation.

“Why did we exclude twowheelers from the scheme? There are around 40 lakh twowheelers in the city. If we take 20 lakh of them off the roads, it will spill onto public transport and right now we do not have the capacity to take such a burden, there will be chaos on the roads... it will lead to complete anarchy,” he said.

Kejriwal added, “It is being said that we excluded twowheelers because they are our vote-bank, but that is not the case. We won 67 of 70 seats, so everyone voted for us... the entire Delhi is our vote-bank. Last time, despite the odd-even scheme, the ridership of Metro trains did not increase significantly. Buses were also empty. Our impression is that people generally car pooled... But if we include two wheelers in the scheme, the crowd will spill onto public transport,” he said.

Explaining how the government arrived at the decision to implement the road rationing policy, he said, “In politics, sustainable solutions can only be found by taking the maximum number of people along. In the winter, the High Court called Delhi a gas chamber... if we had immediately signed an order on December 1 announcing the odd-even scheme from January 1, there would have been a backlash from people. Instead, we engaged with people for a month”.

He said on January 1, the first day of the odd-even scheme, only 200-300 violations were recorded. “Of 20 lakh vehicles, only 200-300 violations were reported. If there were 10,000 violations, our entire government machinery would have collapsed. People did not follow the odd-even rule because they feared the fine, they followed it because they wanted to do so,” said Kejriwal.

The chief minister also spoke about his government’s plan to introduce a bus aggregator scheme in the next few days, similar to private cab operators. “There will be some rules... the buses should be air conditioned, every passenger should have a seat,” said Kejriwal.

He admitted that while Delhi needed at least 10,000 more buses, there was no space for any more parking lots in the city. “... DDA is the land controlling authority and they are charging us Rs 4 crore for land. For 10,000 buses, we need at least 500 acres. We have been requesting them for land, even if it is only on lease. If we get the land, we can introduce new buses much faster,” he said.

Ravi Kanojia A traffic jam at ITO Tuesday evening.