Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (RD/CN)

Mangalore, Aug 18: Owners of around 90 petrol pumps across the city have decided to shut their fueling stations fully or partially to express their dissatisfaction with the supply of petroleum products from oil companies, both state-owned and private. They demanded immediate action for resumption of regular supply at the earliest.

Accordingly, petrol pumps will be open for business only from 7.00 am to 9.00 pm with effect from Sunday, August 17, stated petrol pump owner Devaraj. Nearly 50 percent of petrol pumps, of 135 located in Udupi and Dakshina Kannda (DK) districts, are facing a fuel shortage while around 20 petrol pumps have already exhausted their stocks and have had no fresh deliveries at their retail outlets.

When motorists demand regular petrol, filling station attendants are coaxing them to go in for the premium fuel instead. If a customer demands 100 liters of fuel, he is given only half of that. Similarly if one demands 10 liters, one would get only a liter. Moreover, if truck or tempo drivers demand only diesel without lubricant, the attendants refuse them. Also, some of the attendants refuse fuel to people other than regular patrons.

Some petrol pumps have also displayed banners stating that they have no stock of petroleum products for retail. City and private express bus owners were the first to face pinch. Retailing of petroleum products has been severely affected in several petrol pumps all over Karkala, Venoor, Beltangady, Kundapur, and Brahmavar.

No new supplies of petroleum products:

Although demand drafts of lacs of rupees have been forwarded to major oil companies, no deliveries have been dispatched, says a city filling station owner, expressing his deep concern over sustaining turnover.

If the filling station owner seeks a reply from oil companies, their executives make excuses. Also,  no officer from the oil companies has offered a clear reply to repeated queries, he added.

'We have introduced quotas based on the previous month’s supply for every filling station,'    claimed an officer of an oil company though the owner of a filling station at Karkala said that not even half of the requirement has been met. Accordingly, the petrol pumps owners' association has decided to complain to the deputy commissioners, seeking to regularize the supply of petroleum products to all filling stations in Udupi and DK districts.