 "elhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addresses a press conference at old secretariat")
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the odd-even scheme, which bans private cars on alternate days, will be enforced from April 15 to the end of the month. As before, women drivers and two-wheelers will be exempt from the restrictions, which allow cars with odd-numbered plates to run on odd-numbered dates; even-numbered cars are permitted on the others.
81% of those who interacted with the government through phone calls, a websiteor neighbourhood gatherings voted in favour of the traffic rules, Kejriwal said. The Chief Minister acknowledged a major complaint - that the capital does not have enough public transport.
"We expect 1,000 additional buses in May and another 2,000 by the end of the year," he said. The odd-even rule was first tested by the government in the capital at the beginning of the year after the Supreme Court ordered emergency measures to combat the toxic smog in the world's most polluted capital.
Environmental experts are divided over whether the traffic restrictions cut down pollution. Kejriwal's government has claimed evidence of an improvement. Once again, judges and other VIPs will not be covered by the rules, said the Chief Minister, adding that he hoped they would take to it voluntarily.
During the January installment, he pointed out, many judges cycled to work; the Chief Justice of India T S Thakur carpooled to the Supreme Court. Kejriwal's government marks the end of its first year in office on Sunday. With his cabinet, Kejriwal will take phone calls over two hours from the public on stage at a stadium.
In an informal chat with a few reporters, Kejriwal revealed that plans to build an elevated double-decker road were on the anvil and if the centre sanctioned the plan, it would become the first experiment of its kindanywhere in India. Delhi government has around 1,260 km of roads under its jurisdiction - and a number of drains.
The plan was to build seamless roadswith access points at every five kms only for buses on which only buses wouldrun. If cars wanted to use the roads they would be charged a very high toll.The lower road would be for cars and two-wheelers. The Chief Minister indicated that Delhi was on the cusp of atransport revolution.
"The last phase of odd-even did not really shift people to the Metro - it encouraged more car pooling. If cars have to get off the roads,it can only be done by creating better public transport networks - which in turn need more roads," he said.
Once the plans are sanctioned, it will take three years tobuild the roads, added Delhi PWD Minister, Satender Jain. Kejriwal also told reporters that public health and education will continue to be the twin focuses of the government.
From 1 February, all medicines in government-run dispensaries and clinics will be free- they were free earlier also but unavailable because of corruption andleakage. Kejriwal said he has held a conference of 3,000 doctors employed by the Delhi government and told them that money was no object - but medicines should be made available to everyone.
Moreover, all user charges - ie costs of diagnostic tests - will now no longer be charged from patients. The Delhi government has introduced plans to appoint Estate Managers in all Delhi government hospitals and schools just to ensure doctors don't have to deal with issues like security, cleanliness and logistics.
Decentralisation of health facilities will mean that overcrowding at speciality institutions by patients with minor ailments will be prevented. The AAP government's last budget had the maximum outlay for education. In its first year, autonomy given to principals of schools was a way of empowering them.
In the coming year, the government will follow this up with training of teachers by the alumni of Harvard, Cambridge and IIM Indore, so that teachers know how to address the needs of the socially disadvantaged without diluting the standards of education. Kejriwal said Delhi's municipal problems are not a result of trifurcation - East Delhi's financial problems were entirely due to mismanagement, leakage and corruption.
Revenue streams were either going into people's pockets or simply remained undiscovered. Property tax was just not being collected. However, he said unification was not the answer. On Delhi's power situation, Kejriwal said the government had sought the right from the centre to scrap earlier long term power purchase contracts from NTPC and renegotiate them for a lower per unit price of power.
He said, for instance, that Delhi wasbying power from NTPC at around Rs 5 per unit while Gujarat was buying it at Rs 2.14 a unit. While the government was giving a Rs 1,400 crore subsidy to the disadvantaged, power could be made cheaper for everyone - if the agreementswith NTPC were scrapped.
