The ever increasing pollution in the capital of India has left the population breathless, literally. The dust laden air, full of fumes and poisonous gases has seen an exponential rise in recent times.
The Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal after having had an experiment with the Odd and Even formula of rationing the vehicles on the road in Jan 2016 has reintroduced the scheme from 15 Apr to limit the number of vehicles on the road.( http://auto.ndtv.com/news/odd-even-rule-in-delhi-makes-a-return-guidelines-and-tips-to-follow-1258978) The Odd numbered cars are allowed to ply on the odd dates and the vehicles with registration numbers ending in even numbers are allowed on the even dates. The rule is not applicable on Sundays. There are a few categories that are exempt from this rule. The Delhi Pollution Control Committee will gauge the impact on city’s quality of air at 119 locations around the city
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| Courtesy: Hindustantimes.com |
A section of people from the opposition parties like Congress and writers like Chetan Bhagat have criticized the move of rationing the vehicles on the road. (http://www.livemint.com/Politics/W8BhZpkbrosfLKhGOJTDFO/Will-Delhis-oddeven-rule-to-control-air-pollution-work.html) Their view is that such a move would lead to wealthier section buying more cars having both odd and even registration numbers to defeat the scheme. Also, according to the critics, lack of adequate public transport, security of women and higher cab fares besides inconvenience are other concerns.
Having seen the pros and cons the following action points are necessary to consider for curbing the air pollution in future:
· Review the Results- From the learnings of implementation in Jan and Apr road rationing, regarding effects on air quality be made public to ascertain the success of the scheme
· Pollution from Construction- A separate study needs to be done on the pollution caused by the rampant construction around the National Capital Region and maintain a check on the same
· Burning of Trash/ Industrial Pollution- Heavy penalties be imposed on burning of trash and emitting toxic smoke from industries.
Everyone is a stakeholder in the fight for pollution and needs to contribute to help in inhaling cleaner air and keeping environment clean.
PS: This blog post is in reference to Social Media Marketing Specialization being pursued with Coursera/Northwestern University, USA (https://www.coursera.org/learn/nurture-market-strategies) You may correspond with me on rahulbhatia20@twitter.com
