Odd-even may come back this winter, if L-G allows, says Jain

NEW DELHI: Delhi transport minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday said the odd-even scheme may return in the winters, if lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung allows.

NEW DELHI: Delhi transport minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday said the odd-even scheme may return in the winters, if lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung allows.

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Jain was speaking on the WHO report on air pollution that places Delhi second on the list of most polluted cities in the world.

Delhi’s odd-even plan is a traffic experiment by the AAP government which allows vehicles of odd and even numbers on alternate days to reduce pollution and congestion on the capital’s roads.

“If Delhi wants a silver medal, this is certainly not what it should be in,” Jain said.

“With a population of 2 crore and the high traffic density, Delhi has always had a higher level of air pollution than the West. It reduces during the monsoons, but goes up again during the winters,” the minister said.

He also took a dig at the BJPled municipal corporations for not cleaning the garbage, which, he said has also contributed to the outbreak of mosquito-borne disease. “They (municipal corporations) do not do their job of keeping Delhi clean, they are just good for taking money,” he said.

Jain credited the fogging drive by the AAP government for the reduction in the number of people coming to Delhi government hospitals with fever. “The government has been conducting fogging for the last seven –eight days and we have seen that the number of fever cases coming to the hospitals has gone down in the past 2 -3 days,” the minister said.

He also assured that adequate measures have been taken for treating fever patients.

“All the dispensaries and mohalla clinics are running on all seven days of the week to take care of fever patients, fever corners in the hospitals are running round-the-clock,” Jain said.