A knee-jerk crackdown on illegal pool cars slammed the brakes on 25 vehicles on Monday, three days after a crash killed the driver and seriously injured a Class IV student.

Motor vehicles inspectors, accompanied by cops, fanned out in the morning to run a check on some of the vehicles ferrying schoolchildren.

The target zones were Lansdowne Road, Ballygunge Circular Road and Gariahat Road, all leading to prominent schools.

The cops drove the unregistered pool cars to the transport department depot in Dhulagarh, Howrah, after dropping the children to school.

Transport department insiders, however, admitted that all the cars hauled up on Monday would be back on the road ferrying children after their owners paid a fine.

Transport minister Ranjit Kundu, who vowed to take action against unauthorised pool cars after Friday’s mishap on Jessore Road, sang a different tune on Monday.

“We have done whatever we could. What can we do if the pool car operators don’t come forward (to get their vehicles registered)?” he asked.

The minister was referring to a November 2009 notification that laid down guidelines on registration of pool cars. A year later, only 50 of the 5,000-odd pool cars have been registered.

Kundu also made it clear that his department could not continue with the crackdown for long. “The drive will continue but not throughout the year,” he clarified.

His officials, however, argued that if the drive could be continued for a couple of weeks and the booked vehicles not released, the owners would automatically make a beeline for registration.

Some officials suggested a mechanism to keep a tab on errant vehicles or drivers. “If the driving licence is marked after every violation, the police will get to know if the driver is a habitual offender,” said an official.

Pool car owners demanded sops before registering their vehicles and getting permits to ferry schoolchildren.

“The transport department had offered subsidies and other privileges to auto and taxi owners. Why should we be denied?” asked Abir Roy, the secretary of the Pool Car Owners’ Welfare Association.

On Friday, a speeding bus rammed into a Maruti Omni, a vehicle deemed “unfit” to ferry schoolchildren, near Birati. The lone student in the car, Abhijeet Santra, is recovering in a nursing home.