81% want the return of odd-even in Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal cites report

New Delhi: 81% of Delhiites are in favour of the odd-even formula to return while 63% want the scheme to be rolled out permanently, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said.

Delhi government on Thursday released the ‘Odd-Even Survey Report’, based on suggestions from residents of the national capital, and claimed that an overwhelming majority of the respondents favoured the second phase of the scheme to be implemented between April 15 and 30.

The chief minister said 63.65% of the people wanted the scheme to be implemented permanently and around 5 per cent were in favour of having the traffic-restriction scheme for 15 days at a time. The road rationing experiment, aimed at curbing air pollution in the metropolis, was first implemented from January 1-15, barring Sundays.

Subsequently, through emails, missed calls and online forms, the government sought suggestions from the public about the scheme. It also reached out to around 10 lakh people through an interactive voice response system.

“53.14 per cent of the people wanted it to be rolled out from February 14 and 19.53 per cent said it should be implemented from April 1. 8.58 per cent wanted the scheme from May 1,” Kejriwal told reporters.

Interestingly, around 92 per cent said they would not buy a second car if the odd-even scheme was brought back while 7.91 per cent said they will buy another car if there was a second phase of the scheme.