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Refusing to extend the six-month time limit for implementing its ban on polluting auto-rickshaws, the Calcutta High Court pulled up the West Bengal government for failing to get such vehicles off the roads within the stipulated period.
On Friday, West Bengal Advocate General Bolai Roy placed an Action Taken Report before the Division Bench of Chief Justice S S Nijjar and Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh and appealed for an extension of the time limit. After going through the report, the Bench wanted to know what the government had done to rehabilitate auto drivers and improve the infrastructure for LPG refuelling.
Roy said the state had prepared a rehabilitation scheme to convert existing two-stroke autos into LPG along with arranging bank loans for the same.
"Auto manufacturing companies have promised to supply about 3,000 improved vehicles in a month. As many as 11,998 auto owners have showed interest to adopt the scheme," Roy said. At least six to seven months will be required to convert the existing 34,000 autos.
Unimpressed, the Bench said: "The state government should have been proactive and sincere to implement the court's order passed on July 18, 2008. The government should have prepared a plan to convert the auto to LPG mode through phases." It also asked the government not to seize autos which had valid license until further orders.
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