Deputy regional transport officer R Bhalchandra issued a notification on the ban following directions from the regional transport authority, Thane, on August 14.

The six-seaters took over from the hand-set tempo or `dukkar' (as it is called in these areas), in 1994 and had since emerged as the most popular mode of transport from Kalyan to Ulhasnagar, Murbad, Bhiwandi and Panvel.

There are infrequent MSRTC buses operating in these townships, but the service has proved inadequate. Civic transport systems (like the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Transport) still haven't taken off, and the autorickshaws don't operate on the tariff metre system. So the residents had taken to the six-seaters in a big way.

Hira Makhija, a local trader, said the decison to ban six-seaters, whosecharges match those of a bus service, will hit the common man hard. ``The three-seaterwallahs will step into the vaccum, and people like me who travel twice a day to Kalyan will have to pay four times the money we pay now,'' he said.

Suresh Pariyani, president of the Kalyan-Ulhasnagar Tempo Taxi Vikram Owners' Association, said: ``At the insistence of deputy regional traffic officer K G Pawar in 1992-93, old tempo owners agreed to change over to the less polluting six-seater vehicles and raised money for the same from banks and credit societies. Now we're being told we can't ply our vehicles.''

However, the president of Kalyan Rickshawchalak-malak Sena Prakash Penkar welcomed the move. He said, ``The six-seaters take 10-12 passengers, thus eating into our business. They also eat into the MSRTC business by picking up passengers from various stops. These diesel-operated vehicles also cause a lot of pollution.'' But he couldn't explain how the diesel-operated three-wheelers polluted the environment anyless.

Some, however, feel there's a political angle to the ban. According to a Sena leader from Thane, the district contributes most to the party kitty, and a sizeable chunk reportedly comes from the Sena-backed Rickshawchalak- malak Sena. ``Naturally the governemnt is concerned about the rickshaw lobby,'' he said.

Transport Minister Diwakar Raote said nobody had approached him with any complaints and denied he had received any representation from owners of six-seaters or residents. ``If people complain, our government will help them,'' he pointed out.

When this reporter quoted from letters of residents' organisations, which had been received by his offce as early as September 3, he said, ``I receive thousands of letters every day and personally go through each one of them, so it must have slipped my mind.'' But he had no solution to offer. ``I will have to study the problem before making any comment,'' he said. But he denied politics had anything to do with the ban.