NEW DELHI, Nov 8: The Delhi government has for the time being withdrawn its earlier order to implement restrictions on cars plying based on the “odd-even” numbers and has decided that its flagship scheme for air pollution control would be implemented only after the Supreme Court reviewed its effectiveness and issued an order.
The state government had earlier decided to implement “odd-even” number scheme from November 13 to 20 in view of the deteriorating air pollution situation in the National Capital Region.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Environment Minister Gopal Rai said the city government would submit the results of two major studies conducted by the Energy Policy Institute of the University of Chicago and the Delhi Technical University to determine the scheme’s effectiveness for the Supreme Court’s review.
“The decision to implement the odd-even scheme will be made only after the Supreme Court reviews its effectiveness and issues an order,” the Minister said, adding that the matter will be next heard on Friday. The apex court during a hearing on Tuesday had questioned the effectiveness of the scheme aimed at curbing vehicular pollution, and referred to it as “all optics.”
The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago and the Evidence for Policy Design had analysed the impact of the odd-even system in 2016 and found that Delhi saw a 14-16% reduction in PM2.5 levels during the hours it remained in force in January that year. However, there was no reduction in pollution when the scheme was brought back in April that year.
The entry of app-based taxis into Delhi has also been banned as per the Supreme Court’s order, the Minister said. The Minister also said the Delhi government has issued directives to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee to restart the Connaught Place smog tower at full capacity and release the remaining funds to IIT Kanpur to resume a study to identify different sources of pollution in the capital. Mr. Rai said a special drive would be conducted to check open burning of waste in Delhi, with 611 teams set up for this purpose.
(Manas Dasgupta)