A few days ago, the Chief Minister of Delhi announced that women will be allowed to ignore the odd-even rule that will be applicable in the capital city on 14th and 15th November this year. However, the government has decided not to give any relief to the private vehicles running on CNG. The Delhi Government is still thinking upon exemption for two-wheelers from the odd-even scheme.
This is the third time that the odd-even scheme is being applied after it was enforced in Delhi for two 15-day periods in January 2016 and April 2016. At a recent press conference the Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal said, “Keeping the security of women in mind, we have decided to exempt women from the odd-even scheme. All vehicles being driven by a lone woman driver, a woman driver ferrying female passengers or those with women drivers and children below the age of 12 will be exempt.”
About the non-exemption for CNG vehicles, the Chief Minister explained that this decision has been taken in response to the complaints received about black marketing and misuse of CNG stickers when the scheme was enforced earlier. He also added to his statement saying, “We observed that the stickers used to denote CNG vehicles were sold in the black market and misused by some people to bypass the scheme. This defeats the purpose of odd-even.”
While he was announcing the enforcement of the odd-even rule, the CM also made a reference to a seven-point action plan to tackle pollution in Delhi. According to the plan, every ward in Delhi will have two environment marshals and also the Delhi government will be distributing N-95 masks to people in November.
The exemption has also been extended to vehicles used by President, Vice-President, the Prime Minister, the Central Ministers, the Chief Justice of India, Governors and Chief Ministers of any state, Embassy Vehicles, and those bearing Ministry of Defence number plates.
