SK oil-diesel cocktail ?
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, September 15 2012:
A strong suspicion has been raised if SK oil is mixed in diesel for running power generators for back-up power supply to mobile towers at the time of power failure.
According to information collected from some fuel retail outlets of Imphal, the quantities of SK oil procured by mobile phone tower operators in the past one year has been increasing considerably whereas quantities of diesel procured from the outlets have come down dramatically.
Usually, the demand for diesel is very low during the months of August and September.
Generally there is heavy rainfall during these months and the Govt's contract works as well as agricultural activities remain suspended.
This leads to severe decline in the demand for diesel.
It is only small passenger carriers like diesel auto-rickshaw, Tata Magic vans, private diesel vehicles and mobile towers which procure diesel from retail outlets during these months.
Compared to the previous years, procurement of diesel for running mobile tower generators has gone drastically low this year as the mobile tower operators are seemingly procuring kerosene in place of diesel.
It is not that kerosene is used directly to run the generators, however.
Generally, either two litres of kerosene is mixed in one litre of diesel or zero density solvent is mixed with kerosene to run diesel generators, disclosed the source.
Notably, police unearthed and seized a large quantity of zero density solvent from Khurkhul Awang Leikai under Sekmai police station sometime back.
Even as the Government has been working to ensure that the monthly allocated quantities of SK oil reach every rightful beneficiary, it remains a mystery how the mobile tower operators procured SK oil from fuel retail outlets, added the source.