Confessions of a fair price shop owner

He is the undisputed “oil baron” of this cramped and dusty east Delhi locality. The area is home to more than 500 poor families. Each is entitled to five litres of subsidized kerosene per month. But entitlement is one thing. Acquisition by hook or by crook is another. Ask anyone in the area where it’s possible to acquire kerosene with or without a ration card and this reporter is directed to the tiny, five-decade-old, family-owned “ration depot”, now rechristened “Fair Price Shop (Govt approved)”.
When this reporter posed as a customer without a ration card but with a crying need for two litres of kerosene for a room heater, shopkeeper Shaadi Lal (name changed), spoke with a touch of arrogance. “Madam, the poor man’s fuel is in acutely short supply these days. Mangwana padega, mehanga milega, kareeb Rs 35 a litre, but hoga khaalis. Kahin aur se lenge to do litre utna kaam dega (I will have to get it for you, and so, it will be expensive, around Rs 35 a litre. But it will be pure and last as much as two litres from any other shop).”
His proposal accepted, Shaadi Lal engaged in casual conversation for the 15 minutes it took for the “order” to arrive. Excerpts:
Reporter: Why is kerosene in such short supply?
Lal: The government should know this, not poor shopkeepers like us. The actual demand in this locality stands at 3,000 litres, but I get only 1,000-1,500 litres every month. So I sell on a ‘first-come-first-served’ basis.
In that case, how do you manage to save stock enough to be sold to people like me, who arrive without a ration card?
Oh not at all, I can’t save even a litre. I am giving you two litres since you sounded so keen that I thought you might need the heater for small children or old people in your family. I always keep a quota for people like you.
But suppose, once in a while, there is excess kerosene in your shop. What do you do?
That has never been the case in the last five years. If I have excess kerosene, I keep it for my near and dear ones. Sometimes, grocery shop owners also demand it.
How can you guarantee that the kerosene you sell here is not adulterated?
Kerosene is not milk that you will mix water and nobody will know. If you mix water in kerosene, water will settle at the bottom. So, if the fuel that comes to my shop is adulterated, I just drain out the water. That’s why I’m selling you kerosene at double the government price, because half of it was water that I drained out. But for the poor cardholders, I sell kerosene at Rs 13.50 as government has regulated (the price), and not a penny extra (The government has fixed the kerosene price at around Rs 12.50 a litre).
Does anyone in authority oversee your running of the shop?
Of course. Officers keep coming in....(they) even conduct surprise raids. Actually, it’s a matter of luck. Once I was jailed for eight days and my license was cancelled since they found some “irregularities” that they didn’t explain to me. I was blacklisted and had to shut the shop for a year. Later, when this “evil” officer got shifted, I got my license back at a huge price.