NEW DELHI, Jan 6: Highlighting “insufficient” public transport and “inconvenience” caused to people by the odd-even road rationing experiment, the Delhi High Court today asked the AAP government to consider if it can be restricted to a week instead of a fortnight as planned.
Terming as “vague” the status report submitted by the government on implementation of the scheme, the court also 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.
“You (government) have to think about it. Your status report is vague and does not reveal much,” the bench said, adding, “There is no sufficient public transport. Is it really necessary to have it for 15 days?”
“Aren’t these six days enough for you? 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.
“In these six days you must have collected data related to pollution level, we think it’s sufficient for you. You will have to think about inconvenience caused to public at large,” the bench said, adding, “there is a practical difficulty.”
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.
“You (government) have to think about it. Your status report is vague and does not reveal much. There is no sufficient public transport. Is it really necessary to have it for 15 days?” he asked.
Fixing the next hearing for January 8, the court asked the state counsel to seek instructions from the government on whether the pilot scheme can be restricted to a week instead of continuing the full run till 15th of this month.
The court’s direction came on a batch of petitions filed by various individuals including lawyers who have challenged AAP goverment’s December 28, 2015 notification bringing into force the scheme which allows private cars with odd-numbered plates to ply on odd-numbered dates and vice-versa.
While seeking quashing of the notification, a plea filed by Delhi High Court Bar Association President Rajiv Khosla sought an explanation from the Delhi government about what jurisdiction it has to slap a fine of Rs 2,000 on those violating the scheme without necessary amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act.
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.”
The Delhi government, while replying to the court’s query as to why women and two-wheelers have been exempted from the scheme, said it was done as it is committed to providing security to women and that applying odd-even scheme to the two wheelers would have paralysed the transport system given inadequate public transport.
“Since, motor cars shall be plied on alternate days according to their registration number being odd or even, it is perceived that there shall be rush in the public transport (metro and buses).
“Hence, the exemptions for women-driven vehicles have been given to ensure that there is no compromise on women’s safety,” the Delhi government’s counsel said.
Mehra, the standing counsel for AAP government, spoke about prevalence of respiratory diseases among children and new borns and said “we are labelled as the most polluted city in the world”.
To this, the Chief Justice interjected “at present you are causing more inconvenience to public”.
Responding to the Chief Justice, Mehra insisted whatever the government was doing was in the interest of people.
“We have to take into consideration the future of the next generation. Entire world is considering climate change. We also have to move a step. Even Chief Justice of India and the judges of this court are supporting the scheme. Courts have been functioning well in the past few days,” he said.
The bench also questioned the exemption granted to senior citizens and the car-pooling method, contending the mechanism cannot be termed safe and could be misused in the longer run.
It also asked the Delhi government to file an affidavit specifying the infrastructure for persons with disability in the public transport system. (PTI)
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