Odd-even scheme: Cong accuses Kejriwal govt of diverting attention from urgent issues

The Delhi Congress on Friday termed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's announcement to implement the odd-even scheme in November a "ploy" to divert attention of people from the pressing problems. Congress working president Haroon Yusuf alleged that Kejriwal has not fulfilled any of the measures to combat air pollution since implementation of the odd-even scheme in 2016.

The odd-even scheme will come into effect in Delhi between November 4-15 to combat air pollution due to crop residue burning in neighbouring states, the CM announced Friday. Questioning the decision of the AAP government, another Delhi Congress working president Rajesh Lilothia said dust was major culprit contributing 56 per cent to air pollution in the city. Vehicular pollution contributed only 14 per cent to it, he said.

"It is yet another ploy to divert attention of the people from other pressing problems affecting Delhi. Kejriwal thinks that like a magician who waves his magic wand to create illusions, he can remove the pollution and traffic problems in Delhi by bringing back the odd-even scheme," the leaders were quoted as saying in a statement. Yusuf also wondered why the Kejriwal government did not do anything earlier to prevent crop residue burning if it held to be the major cause of air pollution in winters.

He said the chief minister had also promised that the 1,400 km of PWD roads in Delhi will be cleaned by mechanical sweepers and water will be sprinkled on it, but the people of Delhi are yet to witness it. Lilothia said the government has been collecting Rs 700 to Rs 2,500 per vehicle for entering Delhi as environment compensation charge and it has collected over Rs 1,500 crore on this account.

"What has the Kejriwal government done with that money?" he questioned. Pollution levels can effectively be checked in Delhi only by increasing the green cover and checking the levels of dust pollution, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)