Imphal, August 31 2010: Whereas the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has been issuing SK Oil allocation for the State in time, the people have been facing acute shortage of kerosene, primarily due to insincerity and dereliction on the part of officials of the Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution (CAF&PD) Department, alleged SK Oil dealers of the State today.

Speaking to media persons at Hotel Imphal here today, the SK Oil dealers said that the monthly allocation of SK Oil for Manipur is 2112 Kls.

However, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas usually allot of 6336 Kls after every three months on quarterly basis.

Generally, after keeping aside 312 Kls from the monthly allocation in reserve, the remaining 1800 Kls of SK Oil are issued to the 34 dealers of the nine districts for further distribution to the public.

Out of the monthly allocation for May this year, the CAF&PD Department issued only 20 per cent of the allocated quantity to the dealers causing serious difficulties to the dealers in distributing the poor man's cooking fuel, they disclosed, due to the cut in the allocation.

Amidst the serious hardships being endured by the people due to non-issuance of SK Oil in line with its monthly allocation, 6336 Kls of SK Oil allocated for the months of June, July and August have not been issued to the dealers till date.

On being inquired into the non-issuance of SK Oil, it was discovered that the IOC has not been informed to issue any quantity of kerosene.

It was, however, learnt that allocation for the month of July was issued in August by manipulating date of issuance.

Even then, the dealers have not been given permission to lift SK Oil from the IOC.

To a query raised by the media persons regarding the 312 Kls of kerosene kept in reserve, the dealers said that each of the 60 MLAs get 3 Kls every month.

But for Wangkhei A/C, another additional 28 Kls are given from the reserved quantity, they disclosed.

Fair Price Shops get two Kls while six Kls are distributed between the CAF&PD Commissioner and the Under Secretary.

However, no dealer has any idea where the remaining 96 Kls are utilised as the department and the Minister concerned have not divulged anything about it, the SK Oil dealers said.

They categorically said that the hardships being faced by the people due to non-availability of kerosene has nothing to do with the dealers.

The problem is a result of the failure and insincerity on the part of the relevant department and the concerned Minister, they asserted while appealing to the authorities concerned to make kerosene available to the public through the dealers at the earliest.

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