Odd & Even Number Plates: Kejriwal, at odds with common sense

They say IITians are smart and savvy and they are good at what they do. Look at what one IITian professor did to the Delhi traffic with his silly Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor plan. After spending hundreds of crores of rupees during the Shiela Dixit government regime and putting to discomfort millions of traffic goers, the plan has now been scrapped by the Kejriwal government. Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi is also an IITian. Now the tax payers will see hundreds of crores of rupees being spent to dismantle the BRT corridor in New Delhi. When I read the news of the BRT corridor being scrapped, I was happy. Finally it took one IITian to realise how daft the other IITian was. So much for being a smart IITian!

But suddenly Mr Kejriwal’s government  has come up with a plan to bring in an odd and even number plate plan for cars. Thus every alternate day, it will be either cars with odd number plates that will ply or it will be those with even number plates. They say, he copied this plan from one existing in China somewhere. If copying was so much fun, why did he or anyone else in India not bring in the one-child policy of the Chinese government?

Ok, now does this odd and even number make sense? Absolutely not, I feel. The government may exempt ladies from this new rule. It may also exempt those in car pool and many other categories of vehicle owners. But what about poor old me? I drive alone and I have one car with an even number. That means I have to take an overcrowded public transport vehicle to office every alternate day. Or else I can buy myself a two-wheeler and use that on those days.

So what is this odd-even plan all about? What is it hoping to achieve? According to the government it is expected ease traffic congestion and also reduce pollution. But then there is another IITian who has come with a study which says that it is not cars but trucks and dust that is polluting New Delhi. Do IITians have this knack of being oversmart?  It’s commonsense; there is so much dust and smoke in the air in Delhi and surrounding areas.  The smoke is because of people burning leaves and wood during winter and the dust is because we are living in a Delhi which is pathetic when it comes to a crumbling infrastructure.  Why cannot Kejriwal talk sense and start building Delhi’s infrastructure?  Maybe he is at odds with common sense! As for Mr Bond, if we were to drive his care here, it’s only going to be every alternate day! 007 is an odd number, no matter how big a Bond he is!