Auto ban: Now govt says ‘no’ to extension of deadline

“If a deadline is fixed,we will have to honour it and the failure in not being able to do it will trigger a lot of flak. That is why we are not going to seek any fresh deadline. We will submit a timeline on the phasing out of the auto-rickshaws,” said Ardhendu Sen,state Home Secretary.

On Tuesday,Minister for Transport and Sports Subhas Chakraborty had said the government would seek an extension of the two-stroke auto deadline.

On Friday,the state government,which is a party with another petitioner,a transport owners’ union,which sought the extension of the deadline,will file the revised timetable in the High Court.

Along with the auto-rickshaws,the state government will also submit a revised timetable for phasing out of all other 15-year-old vehicles.

“The court may or may not accept our arguments. We will have to abide by whatever they say in this regard,” Sen said.

Major auto-rickshaw operators’ unions have refused to comment on the latest turnaround by the government.

Kishore Ghosh,general secretary,Kolkata Autorickshaw Operators’ Union affiliated with the CITU,said : “We are going to be a party with that applicant.” So far 14,000 auto-rickshaw owners have applied for the package that the state government has offered them for switching to LPG/CNG.