AAP's car restriction rule is a slap in the face of Delhi aam aadmi
In a kneejerk reaction to the observation made by the Delhi high court just a day ago that air pollution levels in the capital have reached "alarming" proportions and it was akin to "living in a gas chamber", the Arvind Kejriwal government decided on December 4 to allow plying of private vehicles with even and odd registration numbers on alternate days. The order regarding road space rationing will be implemented from January 1, 2016. The rule will not apply to public vehicles.
By making the controversial decision, the Aam Aadmi Party government aims at reducing emission by half in the capital. It comes close on the heels of the four-fold hike in the salaries of Delhi MLAs. Whether or not it succeeds in road space rationing, but the Aam Aadmi Party certainly is certainly seen moving towards becoming an "Ameer" Aadmi Party or "Khaas" Aadmi Party.
The order putting traffic restriction is tilted heavily in favour of the affluent class. It will hardly make any difference to those who own more than one car and coincidentally have both odd and even numbers. The new order will spur purchase of new cars. It will also, in turn, benefit the car manufacturers and showrooms. The rich people who have more than one car, but if by chance both or all of the cars have odd or even number, can afford to buy a new one with the desired number - odd or even. Or, those who could have afforded to buy more than one car but had purposely kept only car, will go for another one.
Kejriwal government's initiative will put to immense inconvenience the "aam aadmi" which the Aam Aadmi Party purportedly represents. The common man owning one car and who cannot buy another one will have no option but to shell out extra money on hiring autorickshaws. They will end up paying more on conveyance and getting more harassed on Delhi roads. These common families will end up cutting corners and striving to buy one more car. AAP and Kejriwal will only lose the sympathy of the common man and the large middle class people.
The move will coincidentally benefit the autorickshaw and taxi wallahs, who are Kejriwal's staunch supporters and AAP's solid votebank. The demand of the autorickshaws will further grow and they will harass the passengers more and overcharge them.
Instead of taking the short-cut, Kejriwal's AAP government should first have streamlined public transport. There is a huge shortage of DTC buses in Delhi. The frequency of Metro trains is also very low. On top of these, the "first mile" and "last mile" connectivity for Metro and DTC buses remains a major challenge for the Delhi government. The situation is worse in NCR from where a large number of people travel to Delhi and back everyday. In the absence of accessibility between origin/destination and Metro/DTC, the autorickshaw/taxi/cycle rickshaw wallahs will prosper at the cost of the common man in NCR.
Delhi will be the first city after Beijing in Asia to implement road space rationing. While Beijing had implemented it during the 2008 summer Olympics to reduce air pollution, it is common in Latin America. Mexico City, Santiago, Chile, Sao Paulo, Costa Rica, Honduras, Bolivia and recently Paris have put similar traffic restrictions. However, in the absence of a proper infrastructure, Delhi is still unprepared for road space rationing. Car-pooling remains the only possible solution. Otherwise, the common man in NCR can ill-afford road space rationing.