New Delhi: In response to the Supreme Court’s observations on the odd-even car rationing scheme, Gopal Rai, a member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government, has called for an urgent meeting. The court has also requested a response from the Delhi government by Friday regarding alternative methods to reduce vehicular pollution.
The Supreme Court criticized the odd-even scheme, labeling it as mere “optics” and questioning its effectiveness in the past in addressing the dangerously high pollution levels in the national capital. On November 6, the Delhi government had announced its intention to implement the odd-even scheme to combat vehicular emissions.
Initially, the Delhi government planned to disclose the specifics of the odd-even scheme, including details on exemptions and penalties. However, following the Supreme Court’s directions, Gopal Rai stated that they would await the court’s written orders before making a decision on implementing the scheme.
To address the ongoing pollution crisis, the government had scheduled the vehicle rationing scheme to be in effect for a week starting on November 13. However, during the hearing, the bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia expressed skepticism towards the plan, questioning its previous successes and referring to it as mere optics.
Delhi has previously witnessed the implementation of the odd-even scheme in 2016, 2017, and 2019. The court’s viewpoint was supported by amicus curiae Aparajita Singh, who deemed the scheme unscientific and referred to a previous court order from December 2 last year, which called for the implementation of a color coding scheme. This scheme involved assigning vehicle tags based on their fuel type for easy identification, such as an orange tag for diesel-run vehicles and a blue tag for petrol-run vehicles.
