You are constantly referring only to the 38,000 registered autos. What about the tens of thousands of unregistered autos?

— Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar to advocate-general Balai Ray on Friday.

The answer to the scathing court query was blowing in the katatel-fuelled wind today with the government making it clear that it had no intention of moving against unregistered autos just yet.

First things first. How many unregistered autos are there on the streets of Calcutta, The Telegraph asked a transport official at Writers’ Buildings 24 hours after the court lashing.

“No one has a clue,” he said, on condition of anonymity.

Full marks for candour and callousness, in the true tradition of his big boss, Subhas Chakraborty.

[Unofficial estimates put the number of unregistered autos at “roughly equal” to the registered ones — around 30,000 unregistered against 38,000 registered.]

Next, what happens to the unregistered autos that the government was supposed to seize from July 18, 2008, The Telegraph asked the home secretary.

Nothing much at the moment, he mumbled.

Full marks for hum and haw, in the true tradition of his big boss, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who believes in waking up to a six-month deadline “one fine morning”.

“The seizure of unregistered autos would continue, but on a low key. We will wait for a sufficient number of converted autos (from two-stroke to four-stroke LPG) to hit the roads before intensifying our crackdown so that there is no sudden drop in the number of autos available for passengers,” Ardhendu Sen said at Writers’.

This “low-key” approach against unregistered autos is the government’s own doing without any court sanction. The high court had on Friday said registered two-stroke autos would not be seized by police till the next hearing. The July 18 order to crack down on all unregistered two-stroke autos remained unchanged.

“The court has all along maintained that illegal autos should be seized immediately. The government has done nothing about it for six months and it has no intention of doing anything even now,” said petitioner Subhash Dutta.

With the crackdown shrouded in conversion smoke, no specific order has been given to the police about slamming the brakes on unregistered autos. “We have been asked to continue with what has been happening till now,” said an officer at Lalbazar.

Which would add up to nothing. Around 90 autos have been seized since the July 18 order — a strike rate of less than four autos per week.

The home secretary’s “low-key” strategy is further proof of how dependent the city’s transport system is on the polluting three-wheeler. “When other cities are moving towards mass rapid transit systems, the government is admitting without shame that the Calcutta commuter will be crippled if unregistered autos running on illegal fuel go off the road,” said transmission expert S.M. Ghosh.

The government, however, promised a crackdown on katatel, the concoction that powers most unregistered two-stroke autos. “We will strike at katatel supply immediately. We have spoken to the authorities concerned,” said Sen.

The same authorities have not managed to carry out any katatel arrest in the city proper till now — some 15 have been held in the districts — despite 250-plus katatel counters thriving next to auto stands.

The home secretary, of course, claimed that political patronage would not save either katatel suppliers today or unregistered autos tomorrow. “The crackdown on unregistered autos would be a continuous process,” Sen said.

Full marks for cholchhe cholbe, in the true tradition of the government’s go-slow ways when it comes to addressing what Chief Justice Nijjar termed on Friday as “the dangers posed to the health of our children and grandchildren”.