Odd-even: BJP points to ‘problems’, Cong says ‘too early’ to comment

As the AAP government rolled out its much-hyped odd-even scheme in Delhi, the BJP said it was done without adequate preparations while the Congress preferred to wait and watch before commenting on the road-rationing measure.

AAP termed it as a success “beyond expectations”.

“We were expecting some teething problems from people, but we are overwhelmed with the way people have responded to it. The result is beyond our expectations,” senior AAP leader Ashutosh, who uses the Metro often, said.

The party, which is often at odds with the Delhi Police, termed the law enforcing agency’s efforts to implement AAP government’s ambitious programme as “satisfactory”.

“Even the response from the police was satisfactory considering that they must have worked late night owing to the New Year security arrangements. Overall, the response to the initiative was positive,” AAP’s Delhi unit secretary Saurabh Bharadwaj said.

Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay said the scheme had “practical problems” in its implementation even as senior BJP leader and union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi termed the move as a good start.

Upadhyay also criticised Kejriwal for terming the scheme a “big success” within hours of its implementation.

Citing his own experience, Upadhyay said, “I have both odd and even numbered vehicles but when I received a call about an injured party worker, I could not move immediately as only even numbered vehicle was available while the odd numbered one was being used by my son. Finally I called a friend but I was delayed half an hour in taking the worker to trauma centre.”

“Also, there are problems like women not allowed to drive along with say their male family members even if they do not know driving. Many drivers who were driving even numbered cars paid fine just because they had no availability of public transport to their workplaces,” he said.

“All these problems pointed that the scheme was launched in a hurry without working on its micro-detailing and coming out with solutions to the practical problems,” he said.

Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken chose not to comment on the issue saying that it is “too early” to speak about the scheme as it is only the first day of the 15-day implementation, which also includes an extended weekend, in the national capital.