Destination Senapati District For 'Operation Fuel Adulteration'
Senapati turns into a haven for fuel cartel
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 03 2010: Making hay while the Sun shines, the fuel cartel has jumped onto the bandwagon of get rich quick scheme and have found Senapati district as the ideal place to adulterate fuel, especially petrol and diesel brought from Dimapur to Imphal.

The off shoot of this "make money by taking advantage of the fuel scarcity in Imphal," is the transformation of Senapati district into a thriving centre for black marketeers.

To verify the report of alleged siphoning off of petrol and diesel in bulk from oil tankers coming from Dimapur at different parts of Senapati district, a team of mediapersons from Imphal proceeded to Senapati district to investigate the matter for over two days recently.

A DI truck carrying fuel loaded barrelsand fuel put into a jeep from a polythene sheet

Though the media team did not come across petrol and diesel being siphoned off from oil tankers, a thriving fuel cartel of a different kind could be seen everywhere.

In this illegal trade, DI Tatas, which can carry upto 12 containers of 210 to 230 litre capacity, are being used for transportation of adulterated petrol and diesel from Dimapur to Senapati.

One DI Tata can transport 2520 to 2760 litre of fuel every day from Dimapur in such a manner.

How many DI Tatas are actually being used in this illegal trade, however, could not be confirmed.

On the mode of transporting the adulterated fuel from Dimapur, the media team learnt that these DI Tatas stop at almost every retail outlets of IOC at Dimapur to collect the fuel and mixed them with Kerosene at some place before bringing them to Senapati.

On arrival at Senapati, the adulterated fuel is traded to the black marketeers at Senapati Bazar as well as those settling along either sides of National Highway 39 road just after crossing the bridge from Senapati Bazar.

These black marketeers, who, in turn stock up the adulterated fuel in barrels, again sell the same adulterated fuel to other middlemen who transport it back to Imphal.

Located along the way to Karong from Senapati Bazar, Vakho village is one such centre of black marketeers selling adulterated fuel in terms of barrels.

On the road side too, petrol and diesel are being sold openly at the rate of Rs 58 and Rs 42 per litre respectively.

The hectic activities of the black marketing at Taphou village, which is located some distance off Senapati Bazar while going from Imphal, is something beyond comparison.

By virtue of its location next to the National Highway 39, most of the DI Tatas bringing adulterated fuel from Dimapur stopped at Taphou village.

In a small house there, around 2 to 3 women were seen unloading the content from the DI Tatas and pouring out into different containers.

Apart from filling the adulterated fuel in different barrels and containers, they also measured it into transparent polythene bags of 20 litre capacity for the middlemen to take them to Imphal in Jeeps or some other vehicles.

When the media team inquired the womenfolk about the cost of the fuel, they replied that one litre of petrol cost Rs 65 while that of diesel is Rs 45 per litre.

With police personnel seen patrolling the area frequently, the possibility of escaping the attention of Senapati police to the thriving black marketing of fuel being carried out rampantly all along from Taphou to Vakho village, to say the least, is far remote.

Yet there has been no question of anybody daring to stop the illegal trade being carried out in defiance of all safety norms.

It may be recalled here that black marketing of fuel and absence of safety norms have led to unfortunate incidents of fire causing mass destruction and even loss of precious human lives in the past.