Oil Cos staff find the going tough

Prashant Srivastava / TNN / Nov 23, 2005, 01:36 IST

Text Size

Small
Medium
Large

The Manjunath murder case has stirred officials of oil majors operating in Uttar Pradesh.

LUCKNOW : The Manjunath murder case has stirred officials of oil majors operating in Uttar Pradesh.
The frustrated officials who have to adhere to strict government norms of checking the malpractice of adulteration at petrol pumps and also face pressure from pump owners, most of whom have strong mafia and political connections, blame it on the system of subsidy.
A senior official of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on condition of anonymity painted a grim picture. He said that in the name of being a welfare government, the Centre provides huge subsidy on kerosene, which is available at almost Rs 10 a litre. On the other hand, diesel is priced at a shade below Rs 35 per litre.
"If you try getting kerosene at Rs 10 you are actually asking for the moon as every drop of it directly goes to black market where it is sold for atleast Rs 25 a litre.

Petrol pump owners try to corner a major share of kerosene supplied through public distribution system (PDS) and use it as an adulterant in diesel.
If you look at the price difference between the two commodities you can very well understand what kind of profit they make even if they go for just ten per cent adulteration and give a kickback of five per cent to the local police. The system of pricing itself is flawed," he lamented.

The official further added that the oil companies have strict directives from central administration in the form of Marketing Discipline Guidelines (MDGs) to check any malpractice at petrol pumps. "Our field staff has to report immediately to his senior if he finds any malpractice.
The first instance of wrongdoing is punished by about thirty days of closure of petrol pump and fine. Recurrence leads to permanent closure of the petrol pump.
Further, once our field staff has reported a case against a petrol pump he doesn't stand a chance of retracting his version, whatever be the lure or threat, as it reflects on his service track record. Understandably, we come under dual pressure," he added.
Talking about Manjunath's case, the official said that the young officer first reported wrongdoings by Mittal Automobiles in September this year.
This led to the closure of the petrol pump for thirty days and a penalty as well." As his duties would have it, he was on a routine visit to the same pump on the ill-fated day of November 20 when the goons decided to do away with him and even tried to throw his body in a river.
Had the police not questioned the intentions of a group of people near Katni river that night, we wouldn't even have known as what happened to Manjunath," the sad official said.

End of Article