New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has asked the Arvind Kejriwal government to explain why women and two-wheelers are exempted from the odd-even scheme.
The court's observation came while admitting a plea challenging the AAP government's decision to exempt two-wheelers, women drivers and essential services like ambulance, fire and a large section of VIPs from the odd-even trial.
The court has granted the city government a week time to file its response.
Meanwhile, the court has refused to entertain a plea, seeking exemption for lawyers and traders during the trial of the odd-even formula.
The odd-even scheme, mooted by the city government, will be implemented on a trial basis between January 1 and 15. During the fortnight period, two-wheelers, women drivers accompanied by children up to the age of 12 and CNG-certified vehicles will be exempted under the scheme.
Of 85 lakh vehicles in Delhi, 55 lakh are two wheelers.
The Delhi government has announced that it will run 3,000 additional buses on the capital's roads to help commuters, considering the implementation of the odd-even-numbered vehicle restriction formula.
Private vehicles with odd and even registration numbers will ply on odd and even dates, respectively, from January 1. According to the city government, the restrictions will apply between 8 am and 8 pm. There would be no restrictions on Sunday.
Follow odd-even scheme, Kejriwal urges Delhiities
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today urged the people of Delhi to follow the odd-even formula.
"Vehicular pollution is the main reason why we are here... After conducting car-free day on 22nd of every month, we calculated pollution and it was comparatively lesser. This encouraged us to implement this odd-even formula for a trial period of 15 days," he said.
"This will only be successful when it becomes a big movement," he added.
Kejriwal also informed that his government will start vacuum cleaning on streets of Delhi around April, like it's done in Europe.
