The Hindu : National : Small townships and rural areas badly hit

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Wednesday, Jul 02, 2008
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National

Small townships and rural areas badly hit

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: With the international crude oil prices continuing to rise, touching $143 a barrel, the public sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have “virtually stopped” supply of ordinary petrol and diesel to small townships, cities and rural India “forcing” consumers to buy the much costlier premium brands of fuel.

The matter has assumed alarming situation with the petrol pump dealers all over the country, threatening to stop taking the supply of the much costlier “premium branded fuel” stating that they could not force lakhs of consumers to buy the premium brands.

Already petrol pump owners are up in arms in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu against what they described as “unreasonable” diktats of the OMCs. Not only this, even the quota for the petrol pumps from the distribution centres in various parts of the country has been curtailed without assigning any reason. The Federation of All India Petroleum Traders Association has served an ultimatum on the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry that it would be forced to resort to direct action if things did not improve within the next fortnight. However, a senior official of the Indian Oil Corporation, the biggest retailer of fuel, said things were likely to get worse.

“We are getting representations from various States on how the supply of ordinary petrol and diesel has been curtailed. They have also not spared the rural areas of the country where only branded fuel is being made available. We will stop taking supply of premium branded fuels if no solution is found,” Federation general secretary Ajay Bansal said.

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