On Thursday, instead of police crackdowns, CITU leaders were busy spreading their interpretation of the court order banning all two-stroke autos from January 1.

“All auto-rickshaw owners, who have submitted the application to the Motor Vehicles department and are carrying the receipt with them can ply two-stroke autos till the time their vehicles are replaced,” said Kishore Ghosh, general secretary of Kolkata auto-operators union.

The Kolkata police, on its part, have started a drive to seize all two-stroke autos in the city. On Thursday, however, only 15 to 20 traffic personnel were deployed to seize the banned vehicles. “The drive will continue. The traffic department is doing its job. Today, there was some confusion over identifying the two-stroke autos from the four-stroke ones,” said P K Chattopadhyay, Joint Commissioner of Police (Administration).

According to Chattopadhyay, even if the auto owners had the receipts from the Motor Vehicles department, no two-stroke autos will be allowed to ply. On the first day, the police had not decided the modalities of the drive.

“We have not yet decided where the autos will be deposited and how the owner can claim his vehicle,” he said.

The CITU members, who were present in all the auto stands, were distributing application forms for the replacement of the two-stroke vehicles and were spreading their version of preventing the seizure of the autos. They have also set a deadline of January 3 for submitting the forms.