Even after the crackdown of the Kolkata police and state government against non-LPG (two stroke) autos, these illegal vehicles continue to ply on city roads under the ‘green cover’, say senior officers with the city police. Thousands of these prohibited two-stroke autos have been painted in green, which helps them escape the eye of authorities who have no resource at hand to identify them.

“We have reports that thousands of non-LPG autos have been painted green and they are plying in the city. After our crackdown against two-stroke autos, the auto-owners kept their two-stroke autos in garages and brought them back on roads only after painting them. We fail to nab the culprits as there is no proper document to prove that the autos are non-LPG,” said K Harirajan, Additional Commissioner of Police (I).

Kolkata police had sent a proposal to the state transport department suggesting they affix a small hologram on the documents given to drivers.

“To solve the problem, we suggested the state transport department to affix a 1/1 inch hologram on three documents — driving licenxe, permit and RC book. We even started negotiating with some companies to provide these small holograms and the price they initially quoted was 90 paisa per hologram,” added Harirajan.

The state transport department, however, did not take note of the proposal. According to a senior official of the Kolkata Traffic police, the proposal was submitted a couple of months ago.

“We know the Public Vehicles Department provides a smart card to green auto-owners. On receiving information that these smart cards are being tampered with, we stressed on the use of tamper-proof holograms. Despite three meetings held last month and two reminders sent over the last couple of weeks, the state transport department is sitting on the proposal,” said a senior officer of the Kolkata Traffic police.

... contd.