KL Report
SRINAGAR
The fuel crisis that hit summer capital Monday is still far from the over with most petrol and diesel pumps Wednesday locking up much to dismay of public.
Petroleum dealers said the paucity of petrol and diesel has triggered the latest fuel crisis in Srinagar.
Bilal A. Bhat, General Secretary, Kashmir Valley Petroleum Dealers, said there should be a stock of two lakh and seventy thousand liters of petroleum. “But the depots are running dry,” he said, “as the oil companies have kept the depots dry and triggered the fuel crises.”
Pertinently, three major oil companies including Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum supply oil to valley.
Though there are around 1800 tankers of oil companies available in and around Srinagar, said Bhat, “but the stock is being denied to Kashmir valley since past five days deliberately.”
Amid mounting fuel crisis, minister for consumer affairs & public distribution Choudary Zulfikar Ali said the problem shall be resolved soon.
Two days back, however, the minister was quoted as saying that Hindustan Petroleum has the stock of seven days in valley while as Indian Oil has a stock of ten days. But the dealers contested the claim saying the stock is for army, not for Kashmiris.
“But I want to assure people here that the issue would be resolve within two days,” the minister said. But three days on, the minister is yet to fulfil his promise.
Amid minister’s elusive promise and dried up fuel pumps, it seems, public has to face music of the latest crisis.
