Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has asked Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to reconsider the 'Red light on, Gaadi off' campaign, questioning the effectiveness of such an "ad-hoc" measure as the national capital reels under high air pollution level, sources said on Saturday.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi had earlier attacked the LG, alleging that delay in approving the proposal had forced it to postpone the October 28 launch of the campaign. But sources in the LG office claimed that city Environment Minister Gopal Rai had lied as the file sent by the chief minister mentioned the date of launch as October 31.
The month-long 'Red light on, Gaadi off' campaign aims at encouraging drivers to turn off the ignition of their vehicles while waiting at traffic signals. "The LG has sent the file to Chief Minister Kejriwal with the advice to reconsider the proposal," a source said. The LG objected to the "inhuman" and "exploitative use" of Civil Defence Volunteers (CDVs) at extremely polluted traffic intersections and sites, a source said.
The basic premise of the campaign which seeks to risk the health of few individuals on the assumption of protecting the health of many is faulty and does not appear to have any parallel in any other civilised metropolitan city, the LG office sources said. “Moreover, any effective and sustainable solution to this longstanding problem will involve technological interventions and not ad hoc steps, year after year.
"In the long run technological solutions need to be found for enforcement of such measures, rather than deploying humans and putting them at risk," the source said. The LG has also highlighted that the “outcome" of the previous campaigns is not reflected in the proposal and there is no impact assessment report provided to support the effectiveness of the earlier campaigns in improving air quality in the city.
"Also, the multiple risks posed to the safety and health of the volunteers proposed to be deployed at the traffic cross sections under the campaign, merits serious attention," a source said. The LG also noted that the proposal was pending at the level of the chief minister for more than 10 days from October 12 to October 21 and the file was received in his office only on October 21.
What was AAP's response?
Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Saturday said the Delhi government will answer all questions raised by Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on the "Red Light On, Gaadi Off" campaign and resubmit the file for his approval. Addressing a press conference, Rai said, "We will give written answers to all queries raised by the LG and resubmit the file (for approval). We hope that he will make a positive decision on the issue soon." Rai accused Saxena of doing politics over an issue concerning the lives of residents of Delhi.
"The LG has returned the file, saying the Delhi government did not get a study conducted to ascertain the impact of the campaign over the last two years. We conducted the campaign in 2020 and 2021 after carefully studying all available information," he said. The minister said a study conducted by the Central Road Research Institute showed that 9,036 litres of diesel, petrol and LPG and 5,461 kg of CNG is wasted at 950 traffic signals everyday in Delhi.
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