Angry by the state government’s “dillydallying” with the conversion of all two-stroke autos to LPG mode, the environmentalists in Kolkata feel that the state government lacks the will to save the environment.

Through a notification, a year ago, the state environment department had declared that all old vehicles will be removed from the city by March, 2009. However, nothing has been done yet.

“The notification was issued by the state environment department on July 17, 2008. After which we presented it before the green bench in the court. The honourable court then asked the state to implement the same as an order. However, a year has passed but the state transport department did nothing on the issue,” said Dutta.

He also criticised state transport department’s latest announcement that all two-stroke autos and 15-year-old vehicles will be withdrawn from the city roads by July 31.

“If state starts withdrawing all the vehicles all of a sudden, the commuters will face a hard time as the state has not put in place any substitute arrangement so far,” he added.

Moreover, Dutta added that the state transport department has failed in setting up infrastructure for shifting all the two-stroke autos into the LPG mode.

“There are six to seven LPG refill centres in the city. Those centres also face huge crisis of LPG supply,” he added.

The state transport department, meanwhile, held a meeting on the issue with the Kolkata police.

“We have to remove all the 15-year-old vehicles and the two-stroke autos from the city by July 31 as it is the order of the court. If we fail in implementing the order we have to face contempt of court. We will launch a drive for removing the vehicles from July 29,” said state Transport Minister Subhas Chakraborty.