On the first day of the crackdown on the polluting vehicles in the city,commercial transport operators decided to play it safe by bringing out only those vehicles that would pass the pollution test. With the police busy on the streets since early morning to track and seize the polluting vehicles,it was also a day when the commuters were left fuming on the road. There were stray incidents of violence in different parts of the city,as government buses were attacked and damaged by angry auto-rickshaw operators. The police managed to seize three taxis,one auto and one bus in Kolkata,two trucks in Barasat and three in Howrah. The day,however,was not without its share of troubles. Trouble broke out at Tollygunge in the morning when the Trinamool-led supporters vandalised a state bus. Bitan Haldar,secretary of the Trinamool-led auto union in Tollygunge claimed that some members of the CITU-led union had allegedly manhandled the drivers associated with their union. Kishor Ghosh,secretary of the CITU-led auto union,said the Trinamool supporters had allegedly blocked roads to create problem and beaten up their drivers. The commuters were left stranded when the two unions blocked the main Tollygunge road. Sumantro Choudhury,Principal Secretary of the Transport department,said the drive against the polluting vehicles will continue for the next two days. He also said since the ban took affect on a weekend,the pressure was not much but they would start a special drive from Monday to meet the weekday rush. He said the department has asked all its franchisee to run extra buses from Monday. They would bring out 500 buses on Monday,which would include an additional 50 buses. That apart,the CSCT and the CTC will bring out 700 and 300 buses respectively,thereby running additional 400 buses on the road. With a shortage of nearly 4,000 buses that have gone off the road due to the ban,mere 400 buses might not meet the public pressure during the rush hour on a weekday.
