In a boost to the Delhi government, new Chief Justice T.S. Thakur said Supreme Court judges too want to help in curbing the alarming level of air pollution and he won’t mind boarding a bus to reach the country’s highest court.
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The idea was mostly ill-received so much so that the Aam Aadmi Party convenor took a step back within a day, saying the decision has been taken only in principle and if the people don’t like it, the government would abandon the plan. This emergency situation that has come now, I think for its cooling down, if not anything else at least for few days cars will have to be removed from the streets. Many things are yet to be worked out…We will experiment with it for some time…. may be for 15 days. However, its implementation could prove to be a major challenge since over two million vehicles would have to be kept off Delhi roads every day. Delhi police comes under the Union ministry of home affairs and this will eventually lead to another confrontation between the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government and the Narendra Modi-headed government at the Centre.
Successive Delhi governments have faced flak for failing to clean up the capital’s noxious air, ranked as the worst globally in a World Health Organization survey of more than 1,600 cities.
He said tenders will be floated very soon to procure vacuum cleaners from overseas as such machines are not available here.
Jain made it clear that the scheme – which when implemented would drastically reduce the number of vehicles on Delhi’s choking roads – can succeed only with people’s support. “Erring vehicles will be penalised heavily”.
“If PM’s salary is less than ours, it should be increased”, he said responding to a question.
According to Kohli, it will create problems for self- employed people, doctors and advocates who need private cars for fast movement at a short notice and also for women who prefer the privacy of their cars in odd hours.
If you are regular commuter in Delhi, you’d be easily able to recall the last time you had to bargain with an autowala who refused to go by the meter. “Some problems are political and some problems are constitutional”, he said. He said day-to-day interference saps one completely. Asked about his experience in Government, Kejriwal said “Governance is not rocket science”.
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Narain supported the decision and said it should have been implemented immediately. “They’re happy now that their is no interference”, Kejriwal said.
