Odd-Even II: Male parents in Delhi not exempted for school drop

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday announced guidelines for the second leg of the odd-even traffic scheme in the national capital, exempting cars with school children, but only those with women drivers, not men

Elaborating on the details of the second phase of car restriction policy, Kejriwal said that it would be more or less same as the previous phase.

"Women would remain exempted from the second phase as well. Vehicles carrying school kids in uniform would be exempted from the scheme," he said.

Male parents, coming back after dropping their child to school and going to pick them up, will however not be exempted, said the chief minister asking them to "cooperate" in the fight against pollution.

"It would be very difficult to identify each and every male parent. They should cooperate in this effort to fight pollution and pool the car to pick and drop their kids," he told reporters here.

The vehicles of the president, prime minister, governors of all the states, chief justice of India and high courts, speaker of Lok Sabha and chairman of Rajya Sabha and leaders of opposition in both houses, union ministers, emergency and enforcement vehicles like ambulance, fire brigade, police vehicles, will also remain exempted.

The Delhi chief minister also added that no Delhi government official or minister would be exempted from the scheme.

"We (ministers) are not exempted from the scheme. The union minister are exempted but I'd request them to follow the odd-even policy if they can," Kejriwal said.A

On the preparedness for the second phase, Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai said that the 90 percent is already done.

"More number of people are expected to take metro during odd-even scheme since the weather is very hot. The metro will be making extra trips to tackle the extra rush," he said.

The minister said compared to the first phase, where Metro made 3,192 trips during the day, this time, 3,248 trips would be made.

Thirty extra coaches would also be added to the trains.

Apart from that, 6,000 DTC buses would also hit the roads.

"There is also a provision to enhance security and install extra ticket counters at metro stations," Rai said.

He also said that civil defence volunteers would again practice 'gandhigiri' with the violators of the scheme.

"Around 4,000 civil defence volunteers would be stationed across the city. Like previous phase they'll give roses to the violators of the scheme. Apart from this, as many as 3,000 traffic police personnel would monitor the situation across the capital," Rai said.

He also informed that the two helplines launched during the first phase would also be operational.

"The helplines - 01142400400 and 01141400400 would be operational during the scheme. If anyone has any complaint regarding the bus service or any other problem, they can call the helpline", Rai said while adding that suggestion can also be sent to oddevenidea@gmail.com.

The second phase of odd-even policy will come into effect from April 15 and continue for 15 days till April 30. A coordination committee meeting, with the authorities including Delhi Metro and police, will be held at Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium on April 13 to take stock of the preparedness for the second phase.