‘Treat petrol pump staff as frontline workers’

Nashik: The Nashik district petrol dealers welfare association (NDPDWA) has demanded the petrol pump staffers to be included in the category of frontline workers as they have been providing fuel even during the period when the government imposed severe restrictions due to Covid.
Petrol pumps were operational even during the lockdown last year. The association has surveyed staffers contracting the infection while working at the pumps.“We have recently conducted the survey of our all petrol pumps in the district and found that the over 200 staffers were infected since the outbreak of the pandemic last year, but no staffer has succumbed to infection,” said Sudarshan Patil, secretary of the association.
Patil said family members of the staffers were also infected.
Bhushan Bhosle, the president of the association, has appealed to the district administration for the staffers of the petrol pumps to be treated as frontline workers and vaccinate them irrespective of their age and can continue providing fuel to customers.
“Moreover, their staffers should be given an insurance cover like the health staff of the government,” said Bhosle.
There are around 450 petrol pumps across the district, including 250 outlets in Nashik city. Over 5,000 staffers are working across all petrol pumps in the district.