Smoky scene

Sir — The Calcutta High Court had issued an order on July 18, 2008, that all two-stroke autorickshaws will have to go off the roads on December 31. In the intervening five months, between July and December, the departments and the ministers in charge of implementing the order have been extremely casual in going about the task. And when D-day arrived, they fabricated pleas to stall the ban instead of making any serious attempt to impose it (“Buddha signals slowdown”, Jan 4). The chief opposition party, the Trinamul Congress, has exploited the situation to the fullest to spread chaos all over the city. During the auto and taxi strike called on January 3, auto-drivers went on a rampage, torching state buses, stoning vehicles and forcing passengers out of taxis. The police arrested 11 people on non-bailable charges from the Park Circus area, the hub of Saturday’s violence. Those who instigated the hostilities also need to be punished since they are as responsible as the actual perpetrators.

It is strange that the transport department is wasting such a lot of time in banning two-stroke autos and in making the rest convert to liquefied petroleum gas. If it is confused about the ways to bring about the switch to LPG, the state transport minister should visit Delhi, Mumbai and Beijing, which have succeeded in making all their vehicles change over to LPG. If these cities can, so can Calcutta.

Yours faithfully,
Diptimoy De, Calcutta

Sir — The people of West Bengal are always being the victims of bizarre political games. It is a fact that autos pollute the environment. But the TMC leader, Mamata Banerjee, seems to believe that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, are greater pollutants. So Banerjee has made it a point to oppose any and every scheme of the state government, no matter whether it is good or bad. It is true that a democracy needs to have strong opposition parties. But opposition does not necessarily imply aggression. What TMC members and supporters did on January 3 — hurling stones at vehicles, setting buses on fire — is nothing but hooliganism. Is it the aim of the opposition party simply to disrupt our normal lives?

Yours faithfully,
Moli Bhowmick, Calcutta

Sir — Politicians, irrespective of party colour, are interested only in vote-bank politics (“Fatally united”, Dec 31). They are not concerned about public health. Thanks to the hell raised by the TMC and the CPI(M)-backed Centre of Indian Trade Unions as the date for the execution of the high court order approached, two-stroke autos are still plying the streets of Calcutta. The chief minister is now planning to ask the court to give the autos three more months to convert to LPG in spite of the fact that there has already been sufficient time for this since July when the Calcutta High Court passed the ruling.

A similar kind of dilly-dallying on the part of the state government shelved the scheme for the eviction of hawkers. If nothing eventually comes of the court order and hazardous autos continue to have a free-run in Calcutta, then politicians should be held accountable for putting citizens’ lives at risk.

Yours faithfully,
Ranjit Kumar Paul, Calcutta

Sir — The editorial, “Fatally united”, rightly says that “something is dreadfully wrong with governance in West Bengal.” Otherwise, how can political leaders across parties make desperate attempts to delay the high court order to ban two-stroke autos? Everybody knows how dangerous these autos are. The West Bengal Pollution Control Board organizes seminars on curbing air pollution every year on June 5, which is World Environment Day. But it seems that those seminars are only a routine affair. When the time comes to make a concerted effort to make the city air cleaner, the politicians are trying out every way to defer the ban on two-stroke autos.

The people of this city are rapidly losing faith in the existing system. Our elected leaders can never raise their voice against injustice. Their failure is apparent everywhere — from the health to the education sector. In this dismal new year, the only ray of hope is provided by the ever-vigilant media, which have done a commendable job in fighting the auto menace.

Yours faithfully,
Debasish Chatterjee, Calcutta

Sir — Instead of seizing the opportunity to let Calcuttans breathe fresh and clean air, the chief minister is planning to ask the high court for more time in doing away with the two-stroke autos. It is perhaps time to accept the truth that it is not possible to keep running with the hare while hunting with the hounds — capitalists and farmers, large retailers and illegal hawkers, the bandh culture and the right to work do not go together. The state transport minister is in two minds because he does not want to antagonize the cash-spewing auto unions on the one hand, while on the other, he is afraid of going against the voters, most of whom want the ban implemented. Even the usually hyperactive Opposition is going slow on the auto issue probably because of same reasons.

With parliamentary elections round the corner, only a leader with a clearly suicidal bent of mind would ignore considerations of the vote bank and fonts of cash it is synonymous with. Since there is no such leader in our state, we have autos, both licensed and unlicensed, still belching smoke. The government seems to have discovered a sudden concern for the commuters, as apparent in its proposed plea to the court in favour of going slow with the ban that the commuters will face problems if 80 per cent of the city’s autos are taken off at one go. In the following days, there will be more auto strikes, and traffic snarls will increase as a result of road blockades. Chapters will be written explaining the government’s helpless inability to go forward with the court directive. We can only sit back and laugh at this elaborate charade being played out by the police, the transport department and the state government.

Yours faithfully,
B. Sen, Calcutta

Sir — Perhaps Calcutta is the only Indian city the tolerance level of whose citizens is infinite. We suffer from pollution, traffic problems, lapses of law and order, exploitative politicians, and yet remain quiet. Calcutta is the only place where politicians can go against the interests of the people and still stay in power. Since our politicians would not serve us, it is up to us to rise and save the city from polluting vehicles. Those of us who care for the city should stop polluting autos from plying in our localities. And in the next elections, we should be careful not to support the political parties that have failed to work for a cleaner Calcutta.

Yours faithfully,
Raj Bagri, Calcutta