Women exempted from odd-even scheme, CNG cars not: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

Women and people travelling with children under 12 years of age will be exempted from the odd-even scheme, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday. At a press conference at the Delhi Secretariat, Arvind Kejriwal said that privately-owned CNG vehicles will not be exempted from the scheme, unlike the last time.

The decision has been taken keeping in mind their safety, Arvind Kejriwal added. The road-rationing of the Delhi government to curb pollution will be implemented for the third time in the national capital after Diwali from November 4 to 15.

Addressing a press conference at the Delhi Secretariat, CM Kejriwal said, "Keeping the security of women in mind, we have decided to exempt women from the odd-even scheme. All women cars or those vehicles with women drivers and children below the age of 12 will be exempt."

On the change in policy for the CNG vehicles, Arvind Kejriwal said, "In previous editions of the odd-even, the CNG vehicles were exempted. But we observed that the CNG stickers used to denote vehicles were sold in the black market and misused by some people to bypass the scheme. This defeats the purpose of the odd-even."

Arvind Kejriwal also encouraged people to carpool to work during the enforcement of the odd-even scheme. "Most people that use private vehicles prefer to carpool. This is what was observed even the last time," Arvind Kejriwal said.

A decision on whether two-wheelers should be exempted from the scheme or not is yet to be taken and we are consulting experts, he said. There are more than 60 lakhs two-wheelers in Delhi in which maximum runs on old engines.

"Two-wheelers do pollute the air and we believe they should not be exempted under the odd-even. But at the same time given the number of two-wheelers in Delhi, it is impractical to take half of them off the roads. Delhi doesn't have such a large amount of vacant capacity in our public transport to be able to do that," he said.

"However, the decision on two-wheelers has not been taken yet by the government. The government is trying to resolve the contradiction on this issue. In principle, we have decided to stagger office timings. We are consulting experts on this and will share more information when the decision is taken," he added.

Arvind Kejriwal claims to take strict action against additional charges taken by the app-based taxies. The chief minister said that during the odd-even, there are complaints about the arbitrariness of app-based taxi operators.

"This time it will not happen. For this, a meeting has been held with app-based taxi service officials. They have been told that at no cost more than one and a half times the price cannot be charged."

Kejriwal said the government is also in a discussion to change the timing of government offices. "Experts are discussing changing the timings of government offices to ensure that there is no time pressure on public vehicles during the scheme. It will be fixed soon" said Kejriwal.

Earlier, sources in the transport department said the government may exempt women, two-wheelers and CNG-run vehicles this year as well just like the last two editions of the scheme in 2016.

(With inputs from Pankaj Jain)