State has sufficient fuel, refrain from panic buying: Govt

Bhubaneswar: Amid reports of fuel shortage from several districts, the state govt on Thursday asserted that there is no fuel crisis in Odisha and appealed to people not to resort to panic buying of petrol or diesel.Food supplies and consumer welfare department principal secretary Sanjay Kumar Singh said less than 1% of the state’s 2,850 petrol pumps are facing temporary shortages of either petrol or diesel. “It will be wrong to say that there is a fuel crisis in the state. The govt has been closely monitoring petrol and diesel stocks, including the status of fuel availability at retail outlets,” Singh said.He added that state coordinators of oil companies, who are reviewing the situation daily, say only 20 to 22 petrol pumps across the state have run dry temporarily. “The govt is already making necessary arrangements to restore fuel supply to these outlets at the earliest,” he assured.Singh attributed the issue more to operational snags and stock mismanagement than to any actual shortage of fuel. “To procure fuel, petrol pump dealers have to deposit money with oil companies. It is possible that some dealers may not have deposited the requisite amount, resulting in delayed supply,” he said.The govt has formed district-level crisis management groups, headed by collectors, to monitor the situation and ensure uninterrupted supply. Urging people not to believe rumours about fuel scarcity, Singh said no complaints of fuel hoarding had been received from any part of the state so far. He also warned that strict action would be taken against anyone selling petrol above the market price and urged people to report such incidents to the department.Earlier in the day, Utkal Petroleum Dealers’ Association Sanjay Lath assured consumers that there was no shortage of fuel and no possibility of a fuel price hike. “When PM Narendra Modi appealed to people to reduce petrol and diesel consumption, many assumed fuel availability could become an issue and started panic buying,” Lath said. As a result, fuel sales in Odisha have risen by nearly 50% over the past three days. Due to the sudden spike in demand, some petrol pumps temporarily ran dry, creating the impression of a fuel crisis,” he added.