Govt hatches 2-stroke plot

The Telegraph , Friday, July 10, 2009
Correspondent : A STAFF REPORTER
The government is making a hush-hush move to give two-stroke autos an escape route.

The writ so far, ruled by court pressure, was to scrap all polluting two-stroke autos and allow only four-stroke single-mode LPG ones to ply on city streets.

Now, the administration is plotting the conversion of two-stroke autos into single-mode LPG. “Yes, we may soften our stand and allow 2-stroke autos to be converted to single-mode LPG,” said a senior official of the transport department.

A recent high-powered, closed-door meeting chaired by chief secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarti has accelerated the dubious move of “taking a step to reduce air pollution” while “not antagonising 95 per cent of the unionised auto fleet in town”.

Two-stroke three-wheelers are notorious for their low combustion efficiency, causing more pollution. The older fleet of two-stroke autos — and a majority of the 80,000-odd three-wheelers in Calcutta are more than 20 years old — will be far more polluting than its 4-stroke counterparts.

The move to convert 2-stroke autos — months after the transport department had published newspaper advertisements announcing the end of the road for such vehicles — is based on a selective reading of the high court order.

On July 18, 2008, the high court order directed “all registered auto-rickshaws to be converted to LPG or CNG mode” and also specified that “the dual fuel option should not be permitted” for autos plying in greater Calcutta.

But the court had also ordered that “registration of 2-stroke autos should be stopped immediately” and “such autorickshaws should be phased out by December 2008”. Subsequently, the deadline was extended to July 31, 2009, with the government pleading its inability to meet the deadline.

That the government is again creating a smokescreen to plot pollution escape routes was evident from the two voices heard from the officialdom.

“Isn’t that the spirit of the high court order?” demanded K. Hari Rajan, the additional commissioner of police in charge of traffic, when asked why 2-stroke autos will be allowed to convert and run.

“I do not know about any shift of stand. As per the court order, all 2-stroke autos are to be scrapped and replaced by 4-stroke single-mode LPG autos,” claimed D.K. Bakshi, a senior official in the transport department.

Behind the official bluster, the government is surreptitiously finding a way to defuse a potential political bomb by avoiding a crackdown on over 70,000 2-stroke autos.

The sustenance of two-stroke autos — a vital cog in the wheel for both the Left and the non-Left — is something auto unions of all political hues have been demanding.

“We want to convert all autos to single-mode LPG, be it 2-stroke or 4-stroke. Why has the government been insisting on scrapping 2-stroke autos?” demands Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, the Trinamul Congress MLA and leader of the Auto Bachao Committee.

“We have also demanded that 2-stroke autos be allowed to be converted to LPG,” added Kishore Ghosh, the secretary of the Citu-affiliated Calcutta Auto Operators Union.

After doing precious little to slam the brakes on illegal autos and managing to replace hardly 2,000 2-stroke autos with 4-stroke LPG ones in seven months, the government has now decided to show its true two-stroke stripes.

 
SOURCE : Friday, July 10, 2009
 


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