Minister on Friday afternoon: “We will move the high court on Monday to appeal for a three-month extension of the December 31 deadline for two-stroke autos.”

Secretary on Friday evening: “One cannot appeal for an extension before the vacation bench as the verdict was delivered by a division bench. We have to wait till January 10.”

Confusion was the name of the phaseout game at Writers’ Buildings with five days to go as the government continued its tarry-and-parry tactics over the banning of two-stroke autos.

Hours after transport minister Subhas Chakraborty announced the government move for extension of the deadline, transport secretary Sumantra Chowdhury put things in legal perspective.

Legal experts later clarified that since the case is being heard by a regular division bench of the high court headed by Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar, the vacation bench does not have the authority to grant the government’s appeal.

The minister said the government “will definitely implement the court order” on banning polluting autorickshaws but it would like to do it “in a phased manner”, given “the huge number” of three-wheelers.

“That’s why our government will appeal in Calcutta High Court on Monday praying for an extension of the deadline by three months. That would make it easier to tackle a problem of this magnitude.”

What the minister, of course, did not point out was that the problem had assumed this magnitude — 37,000 two-stroke autos to be phased out in five days — only because his department had done nothing from July 18 when the high court set the December 31 deadline.

“This is further proof of the transport department’s deliberate delaying tactics. Having done nothing to implement the court order for five months, they have no right to appeal for an extension of the deadline,” said environment activist Subhash Dutta.

The only ray of phaseout hope from behind the government smokescreen emerged after a meeting of the monitoring committee appointed to oversee the implementation of the high court order.

The meeting was chaired by the chief secretary and attended by the transport secretary, the environment secretary, technical experts and police officers.

The committee decided that the fitness certificates with which many of the 37,000 two-stroke autos have been plying would be repealed to pave the way for phaseout.

“The public vehicles department (PVD) has been instructed to issue an order on Monday to ensure that all such autos with fitness certificates lose legitimacy from January 1. The police have been asked to act accordingly and confiscate two-stroke autos if they are seen plying on the roads after that,” said Chowdhury.

With the transport department putting the phaseout ball into the police’s court, Lalbazar was left groping for answers on Friday. “The PVD will first have to provide us with a list of two-stroke autos. It is a joint responsibility,” said additional commissioner of police K. Hari Rajan.

Calcutta traffic police officers said they would also request the PVD to make space to accommodate the “seized autos” as the dumping ground in Dhapa is brimful.

The transport minister is to meet autorickshaw operators at the Salt Lake stadium at 5pm on December 31 to try and find solutions to the phaseout fracas. By then, the phaseout equation will read: 7 hours and 37,000 autos.