The Delhi government had on Friday proposed the “odd/even” number formula for cars. “Supreme Court judges pooling cars would inspire millions to follow”.
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Successive Delhi governments have faced flak for failing to clean up the filthy air, ranked as the worst in the world in a World Health Organisation (WHO) survey of more than 1,600 cities. “If Supreme Court judges can resort to auto pooling, it will be inspirational for others too”, the chief minister later told reporters.
In an interaction with journalists here, the CJI recalled his experience while flying from Jammu to Delhi and said there was a huge smoke cover over Punjab due to burning of crops by farmers in Punjab. “I mentioned this to the Prime Minister (about it)”.
Kejriwal had on Saturday said that the plan to allow odd and even numbered vehicles on alternate days on Delhi roads from January 1 was an “experiment” to deal with the “emergency situation” in the city.
The chief justice’s comments came at a time when political parties opposed to Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party – in contrast to environmental experts – have hit out at the Delhi government for announcing a decision which they said would greatly inconvenience the public. Let’s try for few days, a week to 10 days if there is much trouble it will be stopped.
“We thought when we will be prepared at that level (bus corridor), we will start imposing some kind of restrictions on private vehicles like cars”.
Talking about initiatives taken by his government to tackle pollution, Kejriwal said vacuum cleaning on all PWD roads will begin from April 1 and grass will be planted on side kerbs and central verges of all the arterial roads to remove dust.
“Odd number hai, ya even number hai, iss se fark nahi padta (the auto has odd or even registration number does not matter), because in any case, you reach court in a vehicle”, he said.
A day after Delhi government’s decision to restrict movement of private vehicles on even and odd classification of registration numbers, confusion continued to prevail over its implementation with Delhi Police saying it had not received any formal communication.
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Internationally, there are a number of ploys used by governments to limit the number of cars on the roads. This rule is also not applicable on Buses and Auto. “I may also use my automotive on alternate days and will use carpooling service on different days”, Jain stated.
