RO dealers fume at fuel rationing system
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, June 01 2023:
Fuel retail outlet deal-ers have expressed dissatis-faction over the government's rationing system of petroleum products in the wake of the restive situation in the state.
Addressing media persons at Hotel Nirmala here on Thursday, a representative of All Manipur IOC Retail Outlet Dealer Association said that with the communal violence erupting in the state on May 3 last, the government imposed curfew in select areas from the evening of May 3 itself.
As such, with exception with a couple of retail outlets opened as per the order of the gov-ernment, all other oil pumps remained closed.
On the day when curfew was relaxed for the first time, all fuel outlets were opened and fuel provided to the public.
However, later the CAF& PD issued orders and provided petroleum prod-ucts to the public on rationing system by allocating selected fuel outlets for the purpose.
There are altogether 72 retail outlets in Imphal East and Imphal West under the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) .
Among these retail outlets, there are many who have not been included in the allo-cation provided by the de-partment ever since curfew has been imposed in the state which is very unfortunate.
This has created problems to the public, the represen-tative said.
The association also said that only after the authority concerned was urged to look into the matter of partiality during the fuel allocation process, two fuel outlets in Chandel and Tamenglong (12 kl each) and 32 retail outlets in Imphal East and Imphal West (4k leach) were included in the latest allocation order issued by the government on May 31.However, since a fuel truck cannot carry fuels for not more than two retail out-lets according to the IOC, the retail outlets have not been provided with fuel by the IOC.
The association represen-tative further urged the au-thority concerned to provide equal opportunities to all the retail outlets and provide fuel allocation to the 72 retail out-lets in Imphal East and Imphal West after every 2/3 days on a rotation basis.