Dehli Police Commissioner BS Bassi on Monday said it would be difficult to enforce the government’s plan to allow cars with odd or even number plates on roads on alternate days, given the number of groups that have been exempt from the rule. Bassi said the plan had been rolled out in a hurry and it would have been much easier to put into practice had the Aam Aadmi Party-led state government decided to make everyone follow the new scheme, especially two-wheelers.

“As time has progressed, changes have been made to the original plan. When the original plan was announced, at that point of time nobody thought that there would be so many exemptions,” said Bassi (extreme right in the picture above), according to The Hindu.

Bassi also said many of the exemptions were ambiguous and based on trust, such as the one for medical emergencies. According to him, the scheme does not specify what counts as a medical emergency, or which document will be needed to verify a commuter’s claim to this.

The police chief had met with senior traffic officials to come up with an action plan after the Delhi government formally notified the scheme on Monday. Earlier in the day, Delhi transport minister Gopal Rai had asked Bassi to stop politicising the odd-even issue after Bassi had tweeted that AAP volunteers should not act as vigilantes when the scheme is implemented from January 1.

"I would ask the police commissioner to not be swayed by political considerations, and instead help the government implement the scheme," said Rai, according to The Times of India. Rai added that trained civil defence personnel would be used as volunteers, but they would not have the power to issue challans for traffic offences.