- Green autos spewing toxic fumes? It happens only in Calcutta, where lawbreakers dictate terms and a helpless government succumbs to them

The Telegraph sat in on a 10-second demonstration by the Auto Bachao Andolan on how to convert a supposedly mono-fuel auto from LPG to katatel, the toxic cocktail that was widely used in the banned two-stroke vehicles and made them poison-belchers.

The state government is taking us for a ride. In polluting autorickshaws at that, as no agency in the state is authorised to carry out conversion of in-use vehicles to LPG.

Gas Hydrates Are 160 Times More Efficient Than Petrol

The state environment is set to issue a notification that will provide police more power to crack down on manufacturers and users of katatel.

The notification will ban fuel production without the state pollution control board

To help clear the city's air of pollution, especially on account of emissions from auto-rickshaws, the state government has mooted a proposal for the replacement of all diesel-run auto-rickshaws. The proposal at present is still being discussed.

Auto rickshaws, if the proposal materialises at all, will henceforth run either on compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Petrol pumps in the greater Guwahati area will remain closed for 24 hours from 5 am of July 9 in protest against the move of the oil companies to phase out normal petrol and replace the same with the premium brand, which is costlier. The Greater Guwahati Unit of the North East India Petroleum Dealers' Association, in a release, said that as the next phase of agitation, the petrol pumps of Guwahati would stop purchasing any petroleum product from the oil companies for three days with effect from July 12.