The odd-even scheme alone is not enough to tackle air pollution in Delhi and government needs to adopt a multi-pronged strategy, including subsidising electric cars and two wheelers, a senior doctor at AIIMS dealing in respiratory diseases said on Wednesday.
Speaking at an event ahead of the World Asthma Day on May 3, Dr Randeep Guleria, Head of Respiratory Medicine, AIIMS, said, “Odd even formula alone cannot bring down the pollution levels. It is good as it decreases the number of vehicles and indirectly brings down vehicular pollution. But it will not work in the long term.”
“We need to have other policies and adopt a multi-pronged strategy to deal with the problem. Why can’t we subsidise electric cars and two wheelers? They are environment friendly,” he said, warning that people would go for another car if odd-even scheme is brought back again and again. Dr Guleria strongly pitched for improving the quality of cars and fuel and also implementing strict norms for emissions as alternative ways to tackle air pollution.
“It is going to be some time when we will have a robust public transport system. So meanwhile, we should work at improving the quality of cars and the fuel used,” he said. Citing countries in Europe and America, he said that despite having a large number of vehicles, the pollution levels are low “because of strict norms in vehicular emission. They are not permitted to have low quality fuel and engines have to be built in such a way that emission is very low”.
Meanwhile, a total of 620 motorists were penalised for violating odd-even rule on Wednesday. Enforcement teams of Delhi government booked 458 violators while the others were challaned by Delhi Traffic Police, officials said. Traffic police challaned a total of 162 violators throughout the city.