High Court reserves order on plea against odd-even rule for Monday

The Delhi High Court will give its ruling on the continuation of the odd-even vehicle rationing scheme on January 11, even as the Delhi government submitted that it wanted to extend the programme beyond 15 days. "Till January 15, we will collect data and thereafter do a proper analysis and take a decision (on formulation of policy to reduce pollution)", Mr Rai said.

The Delhi government today fielded senior counsel Harish Salve to counter the court's query why a 15-day period was required to determine pollution levels.

While the catchword in the government's statement in the Delhi High Court is "emission from cars", for which separate high-frequency data is not immediately available from any other source, the government's own Delhi Pollution Control Committee says the new rule hasn't resulted in a wholesome improvement in the capital's air quality.

The Delhi government told the court that the odd-even formula is working and very well received by people.

"Pollution is not going to go away".

Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai and AAP member Ashish Khetan were present in the court during the hearing. The report submitted by the EPCA did not give tabulated data but indicated trends of pollution levels via graphs.

"The pollutants are not getting dispersed due to calm wind".

Defending the plan, the Delhi government claimed that "intensity of smog episodes" had reduced in the city, with the 24-hour particulate matter (PM) 2.5 concentration levels in the city dropping from 448 microgram per cubic metre on December 22 to 351 on January 3.

The Delhi authorities's newest commercial on "odd-even" scheme that includes chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in "muffler-man" avatar, was on Thursday pilloried by the BJP and Congress for having "blatantly circumvented" the Supreme Court tips and violated the "spirit of regulation".

"The earlier smog episodes have seen much higher peaks and much more rapid build up compared to the rise that happened during the first week of odd-even programme. It validates the importance of the emergency action", said the report. The AAP government's response came two days after the high court questioned the impact of the odd-even scheme on pollution and asked it to examine if it could curtail the programme. The Delhi Government had also committed to improving public transport by providing more buses and metro train runs for commuters.

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