Odd-even: 710 motorists challaned for violating rule on Monday

New Delhi: A total of 710 motorists were challaned for violation of odd-even rule on Monday, the first full working day of the fortnight long road rationing scheme, a number which was significantly less than the violators caught on past two days. Delhi Traffic Police challaned 256 violators while Transport department and district administration teams issued challans to 454 violators for driving odd-numbered vehicles on the even date. [caption id=“attachment_2570340” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] One prominent violator BJP MP Vijay Goel was also fined Rs 2000 for violating the rule near Raisina Road. Goel violated the rule protesting against Kejriwal government’s “huge” expenditure on advertisements of the scheme. The largest number of violators were caught by Traffic police in east(34), south east(34), New Delhi (33) and west (30) districts. The number of violators was low in central, north east, outer, south west and north districts, ranging from 14-19. The first day of odd-even implementation on 15 April saw a total of 1311 violations, while next day 1002 violators were challaned. Unlike the scheme’s pilot phase, in which the focus was more on awareness and voluntary compliance, the government has cracked the whip on violators this time, with over 3000 challans issued in the first three days as against 710 during the same period in the previous phase between 1-15 January. The odd-even rules, whose violation attract a penalty of Rs 2,000 under provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, are applicable between 8 am and 8 pm, except on Sundays. In the second phase from 15-30 April, the government added into its exemption list people driving with school children in uniform. However, the government has not been able to arrive at a solution to the problem of cars returning after dropping school children or heading towards the schools in the afternoon hours to pick them up, and suggested car pooling.