Transport minister proposes, his department disposes.

On March 10, the transport minister said in the Assembly that the government would move the Supreme Court to phase out polluting commercial vehicles manufactured before 1990 from Calcutta.

On Wednesday, his department failed to put up a lawyer in the high court, which resulted in the dismissal of a plea to revive the case.

The no-show of transport department lawyers is not new. In November 2007, the department’s appeal against a high court order — that had struck down the notification to ban commercial vehicles manufactured before 1990 — was dismissed on technical grounds as nobody appeared on behalf of the government.

“I did not know about this. I will have to check before making a comment,” transport secretary Sumantra Choudhury told Metro on Wednesday evening.

The green lobby, fighting for years to remove smoke-belching commercial vehicles from city streets, smelt a rat in the absence.

“It is clear the minister is paying lip service to the green cause while the government is keen on protecting polluting vehicles,” said environmentalist Subhas Dutta.

Last month, the state pollution control board’s experts had made a presentation to the transport department to highlight how the city’s air quality had deteriorated over the years.

“The air quality in Calcutta is almost fatal. The old commercial vehicles are mainly responsible for this,” a board official had said in the meeting.

Chakraborty, who was present, had promised action against polluting vehicles.

“But with the case being dismissed by the high court, the battle against smoke-belching vehicles is again pushed to the backburner. The incident only proves that the government is not committed to improving Calcutta’s ambient air quality,” said a green activist.