THE ODD EVEN SCHEME IN DELHI IS HERE FOR GOOD

The terrible air quality in India's capital has just become even worse so much so that the High Court has termed Delhi a "GAS CHAMBER". Delhi is today a reigning king of polluted cities in the world. Matters have worsened to the extent that there are only two options left : either die or take every possible step to curb air pollution and improve air quality at the earliest.

In the light of such facts Arvind Kejriwal has come up with odd-even scheme. The scheme, set to roll out from January 1 for 15 days, has been proposed to curb pollution in the national capital by restricting movement of private vehicles based on their registration numbers. According to this odd numbered cars will travel on odd days of month and even numbered cars will travel on even days of month.

Although the rule has invited lot of criticism from every corner but the need of the hour cannot be ignored. Healthy environment is our right and our basic necessity for living. This schemes comes with its own benefits. It will encourage people to use public transport along with car pooling. Commuters travelling to same destination at the same time will be forced to car pool with ones having the registration number according to the date of the month. Also for office goers they can by combined effort prepare their own algorithms relating to the offices nearby, pickup station and drop station of various employees including the time and most importantly the registration number of cars they use. This will make it easy for them to plan their car pool.Offices could stagger their staff’s work timings so that fewer cars ply in any given time band. You can think of a dozen more methods to make the scheme work.

Also the rule will encourage use of cycles to nearby places along with discouraging the use of cars even for walkable distances. For those traveling to grocery stores or multiplex daily for not much big reason will be forced to go shopping on just some specified days thus decreasing the amount of traffic in Delhi.

With decrease in number of vehicles on road consequently the emission levels will be lowered which is big step towards achieving better air quality.

ARVIND KEJRIWAL IN ORDER TO MAKE THE SCHEME MORE PRACTICAL HAS EXEMPTED A FEW VEHICLES FROM THIS SCHEME

This is one bright side of the scheme that blocks the route of major criticism from different spheres. Medical services and women's safety have not been compromised. Also the scheme has not been exempted for major bureaucrats and other high dignitaries who will be treated equally under this scheme. This reflects the non-partial nature of the scheme.

HOWEVER FOR THE SCHEME TO BE SUCCESSFUL LOT OF EFFORT FROM THE GOVERNMENT IS REQUIRED

Government needs to make sure that it has adequate number of employees to ensure proper regulation of this scheme on roads. Penalties need to be imposed without compromising. Also not only curbing the number of vehicles is enough; Government has to augment the number of public transport available to allow for easy commute of people. Number of coaches in metro trains have to be increased. Steps should be taken to ensure safety in transport system.

THE ONLY WAY THAT SCHEME CAN WORK IS IF DELHIITES GIVE UP THEIR NATURAL TENDENCY OF "JUGAD" AND WORK SINCERELY TOWARDS ITS SUCCESS 

People we need to think positively this time and not just try to hoodwink the law by different means. There is no use buying two cars with both odd and even number. Its our city our country and we must take it into our hands to protect it. Government is doing its bit. Along with this scheme other steps have also been taken: it will shut down coal ash-spewing thermal power plants on Delhi’s fringe; it will crack down on the practice of burning garbage; and from next spring deploy powerful vacuum cleaners to rid Delhi’s roads of dust.

When Government is doing its part we need to do ours too because the truth is that at this point of crisis every small step will count and every step will bring our capital's air back to life. We need to save it for our future generation. We have spend so many years contributing to the deterioration of air quality; now instead of criticising odd-even scheme lets do whatever least we can to give our contribution to a better air quality.