EESL urges Delhi govt to exempt electric vehicles

New Delhi : State-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) has urged Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to exempt electric vehicles from odd-even or road rationing scheme kicking in from Monday.

"We hope Shri @ArvindKejriwal and Govt of Delhi would realise that the #ElectricVehicles are aligned with their vision of reducing vehicular pollution and exempt it from the odd-even scheme", EESL tweeted.

The Delhi Government has brought the road rationing scheme to deal with rising level of pollution in the National capital region. The scheme will be implemented from November 4 to 15. "The odd-even scheme by Govt of Delhi is an important step towards reducing DelhiPollution.

It would have been the right moment for the Delhi Govt to highlight the importance of ElectricVehicles by exempting it from the odd-even scheme," the company said in one of its tweets. It further said, "Curbing air pollution due to vehicular emission is at the core of Emobility program of Govt of India.

It is unfortunate that the Government of Delhi is not exempting EVs from its odd-even scheme." The company also tweeted that "this inclusion of ElectricVehicles, along with IC engine cars, in Delhi's odd-even scheme sends a wrong message to the people in the city & across India, especially at a time when Centre and States are all united and transitioning to EVs to combat air pollution".

Pollution levels in Delhi and satellite towns shot up again on Sunday morning, with the air quality bordering the 'severe plus' category at several places. A slight increase in the wind speed and a light drizzle on Saturday had led a drop in pollution levels with the air quality index settling at 399 in the evening.