Calcutta, July 19: Transport unions today asked why only public vehicles were under the pollution scanner and what was wrong if a vehicle was over 15 years old but conformed to emission norms.

“We’d want to know why only buses that are 15 years old are banned. Why not those that are 12 or 14 years old?” said Swarnakamal Saha of the Bengal Bus Syndicate. “What about private cars that are 15 years old?”

The unions will meet next week to discuss the high court directive on phasing out vehicles over 15 years old. An informal meeting of bus and minibus owners today agreed to a formal meeting to discuss:

How to fight the order legally

Whether the court can be made to hear the views of the transport lobby

If the order has to be followed, what compensation should be offered to vehicle owners to be hit by the order

How the government can crack down on buses and not the lorries entering the city every day?

The Joint Council of Bus Syndicates has fixed a meeting of its members on Thursday. “Strangely, bus, minibus or lorry operators were not made party to this case. We’d have to decide the next legal step because the directive would hit nearly 10,500 bus operators in the Calcutta municipal area,” said the council’s Sadhan Das.

“If a bus owner maintains a vehicle well, where is the harm in driving it?” asked Saha.

Transporters also wondered how the pollution level could be lowered in a city with 5 per cent road space and 15 lakh registered vehicles, mostly travelling on low gear. On low gear, a lot of the fuel remains unburnt, causing pollution.