Before jumping the gun and introducing second phase of the odd-even scheme in the national Capital, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday came out with an elaborate plan to seek public opinion on the road-rationing experiment.
The government has decided to invite public suggestions on a six-point questionnaire which will initially be sought through email, while a phone line would be introduced in the longer run.
The decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of all MLAs and concerned department officials, chaired by the Chief Minister.
As per the plan, the AAP government has asked all MLAs to organise ‘jan sabhas’ in their respective constituencies from February 6 to 7 to seek people’s suggestions on the implementation of second phase of the car-rationing scheme. “We have decided to seek public opinion in a structural way and incorporate people’s suggestions before implementing the second phase of the odd-even scheme which received an overwhelming response from the public earlier. Based on the feedback received by February 8, we will analyse and come up with a concrete plan,” Kejriwal said.
“From tomorrow (Tuesday), we will issue advertisements asking the masses to email their suggestions to oddevenidea@gmail.com. We also plan to introduce a phone line soon for the same purpose,” he added.
“We will soon launch a telephonic call service for the people to give their opinion,” he added. Kejriwal, who is also convenor of the AAP, directed his MLAs to hold four meetings in their Assembly segment — one each in each municipal ward — to gather public opinions on these questions. The government will also distribute pamphlets having questions printed on them to get maximum response.
Kejriwal said the six broad questions on which the government is seeking public responses include whether the scheme should be implemented again? If yes, when it should be done and for what duration, whether people will be encouraged to buy another car and whether the exemptions introduced earlier were up to the mark or need to be reconsidered?
“Majority of the people opted for ‘car pool’ which is the very practical and viable solution. Metro will surely be crowded so are the buses but reaching out your neighbour is quite easy,” he said when asked about weakness of the transport system in the city.