Guru Nanak Dev birth anniv: Delhi govt decides to lift odd-even rule on Nov 11-12

There will be no odd-even restrictions on movement of vehicles on November 11-12 in Delhi to ensure hassle-free commute on the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday. The government had announced the odd-even scheme between November 4 and November 15 to fight air pollution. It is effective between 8 am and 8 pm.

Kejriwal said at a press conference that the decision to relax the scheme for two days has been taken to avoid disturbance during the celebration of the Sikhism founder's birth anniversary. "Several Sikh organisations had met me and demanded that odd-even rules be lifted for November 11 and 12. Thousands of people participate in several programmes on the occasion of Guru Nanak Dev's birth anniversary.

"In view of this, the Delhi government has decided that there will be no odd-even restrictions on vehicles on November 11-12," the chief minister said. The government maintains that due to odd-even rule, nearly 15 lakh of the total 30 lakh vehicles remain off roads everyday.

On Friday, a total of 532 challans were issued by traffic police (294), transport (159) and revenue (38) departments. On November 4, the first day of the odd-even road rationing scheme, Kejriwal had termed the exercise "successful".

However, the BJP has called the scheme an "election stunt" by the Aam Aadmi Party government which was causing difficulties to people. Two thousand civil defence volunteers, 465 teams of Delhi traffic police, revenue and transport departments were deployed on the first day.