The second phase of the odd-even scheme would be launched from 15-30 April, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Thursday at a press conference, accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai.
“The first phase was a success and the people of Delhi had happily cooperated with us. In this regard, we conducted surveys on emails, websites, phone and mohalla sabhas to seek opinion of the people and I am happily saying that more than 95% of the people said they were happy and wanted it back. Keeping in mind such a popular demand, we are rolling out the second phase of the odd-even scheme,” said Kejriwal.
The rules of the second phase would be same as that of the first phase, with exemptions continuing for two-wheelers and lone female drivers.
“We are keeping two-wheelers out because we still do not have adequate public transport system capable of accommodating around 20 lakh people,” Kejriwal added.
The Aam Aadmi Party government this time has also rolled out recruitment plans to recruit 500 retired defence personnel for the enforcement of this scheme. “In the last phase, the SDMs and tehsildars were on duty, but we saw that this hampered their own office work. So this time, we are recruiting retired defence personnel for enforcement and these traffic enforcement personnel will also have the capacity to challan offenders,” Kejriwal said.
However, the government is still deliberating on the challan amount for this phase, and if sources are to be believed, the fine amount could increase to serve as a strong deterrent for violators.
The government has also said that schools will not be shut during this phase and no school buses would be procured for the second phase unlike in the first phase that was rolled out from 1-15 January.
“We are in the process of procuring 1,000 buses which are expected to come to us by May this year, but for the second phase, we will not take school buses and shut down schools. We are in talks to get contractual buses to help ease commuters.” Gopal Rai said.
“We are also not exempting VIPs for this phase. However, we have received a lot of demand to keep them out of the exemption list, but I ask all the VIPs to set an example and cooperate with us to help make Delhi a better place,” Kejriwal said.
The AAP government is also deliberating on implementing this scheme on a permanent monthly basis, following the second phase. “After the second phase, we will see if we can implement this every month for 15 days. It would cause a little problem initially, but once the public transport system is efficient, it would be a smooth ride. I ask all the citizens of Delhi to cooperate with us on this, like they did in the first phase,” Kejriwal said.
- Advertisement -