'Skies clear, no need to reimplement odd-even,' says Delhi CM Kejriwal

New Delhi: Delhi chief minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said that there is currently no need to reimplement odd-even scheme in the pollution-hit city.

''The sky is clear now, so there is no need of it,'' Kejriwal said.

Commenting on the bad quality of tap water in the city, Kejriwal said, "Any city's water quality cannot be judged on basis of 11 samples."

In an attempt to reduce traffic congestion and tackle pollution, the odd-even scheme was enforced in the national capital from November 4 to 15.

The traffic rationing scheme prohibited plying of private vehicles based on the last digit of their registration numbers.

Vehicles with even digits were only allowed to ply on even dates, and those with odd numbers on odd dates.

Replying to Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan, who on Sunday had said that tap water in Delhi is not safe for drinking, Kejriwal said, "Moreover, Ram Vilas Paswan ji isn't disclosing where were samples taken from. I'll take 5 samples from each ward of Delhi, get it checked and put data in public."

A study by the Union Consumer Affairs Ministry found that the samples collected from Mumbai are compliant with the Indian standards for drinking water.

However, other metro cities -- Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai, failed in almost 10 out of 11 quality parameters tested by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) which is under the aegis of the Consumer Affairs Ministry.

''In the first phase, the BIS had found all the 11 samples drawn from Delhi did not comply with the quality norm and the piped water was not safe for drinking purpose,'' Paswan had said.