What a brilliant brain wave from the Delhi administration! Could not have come out with a better solution! The only problem is that people's offices, schools, businesses do not open and close alternately on odd and even days...
So Delhiites are expected to walk to their engagements on the other day? Or may be Delhi government is suggesting that you have two cars - one with an even registration number plate and the other with an odd number. Problem solved! Car manufacturers are happy,. Government is happy and people - well! even if they are not happy atleast they can drive everyday. Learn to be contented! Even better, government may consider giving free bullock carts to Delhiites. That will eliminate pollution for sure!
Real Problems, Unrealistic Solutions...
Real problems call for real solutions and not unrealistic knee-jerk reactions tagged as solutions.
Rising pollution is a real problem, not only of Delhi but of most major centers in India. But then to only blame motorist for the same and penalize them is neither fair not the solution.
The fact is that most cities in India, including Delhi, have poor, unreliable and creaking public transport system.
> The public transport system is not end to end. This means you can cannot rely on public transport to really take you from your origin all the way to your destination.
> Then the frequency of public transport is low and irregular. This means you may or may not get a bus for your destination and/or you might have to wait for a long long time. People already burdened under long commutes in metro centers of the country cannot afford the same.
> Overcrowding is another problem in public transport. With demand far outstripping supply, the buses and trains are overcrowded. Forget about place to sit, many a times there is not enough place to even stand. Very recently a heart rendering video of a Mumbai local train passenger latching perilously from the train before finally slipping and falling off on the tracks to his death, traumatized everyone in the nation.
> And if this is not enough then most staff on public transport in India are most unhelpful and ill-behaved.
It was about 20 years back in Delhi that I myself experienced a near horror with a DTC bus. The bus was overcrowded and my stop was nearing. As is the unwritten rule, much before your stop is about to arrive, you must start making your way through the unrelenting crowd on the bus towards the front door of the bus (you are only allowed to alight from the bus using the front door).
I luckily got near the front door before my stop arrived. As the request stop drew closer, the bus slowed down. In Delhi, many a times bus does not completely stop at request stops and you must practice to alight from a slow moving bus.
As the bus came to a near halt, I began alighting from the bus. But hardly did my left foot touched down the ground that suddenly the bus accelerated. The momentum threw me on the ground and thanks to reflexes that I quickly retracted my left leg, else it would have been under the tyre of the bus.
My hand was bleeding, my file and paper were scattered on the ground...and there were onlookers at the bus stop. No one came forward to help me. I gathered my wits and belonging, walked to the nearest hospital and got a first aid and a tetanus injection. This was not the first time I was traveling in a bus in Delhi. But when I think in retrospect, this could have happened to me on any of my trips.
Thank God, I am alive.
Real Solutions
Does pollution in Delhi needs immediate action? You bet! definitely yes. But then one wonders why did successive governments and administration wait for these many years and let the situation slip away to this extent?
But then the only way to check pollution and discourage people from taking out their private vehicles on the road is to revamp the public transport system on a WAR-FOOTING. If public transport becomes reliable, fast, end-to-end and empathetic then most people will very naturally prefer to chose the same.
After all in such crazy traffic who really wants to drive?
Added to this all polluting vehicles must be sent off-roads. Strict emission norms are needed; more than that their stringent implementation is necessary. Trucks, lorries, cabs and even government run buses at times are the biggest defaulters. but everyone gets a anti-pollution certificate! Why? How? We know it don't we?
Odd-Even is a poor unsustainable solution that will only bypass the problem and not really solve it. Next you know another racket of registration number plates may start in Delhi!
Wake-up Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata and the likes. Revamp the public transport system now and do not wait for the delhi-belly to hit you.
