Protest by petrol dealers in state puts consumers in distress

A significant number of petrol pumps in several districts closed down protesting against the dynamic fuel pricing which came into effect from Friday.

While petroleum dealers associations had not called for a bandh, their decision not to buy petrol and diesel on Friday meant only those fuel stations which had stock to cater to their consumers could function normally.

“Petrol pumps in Mysuru, Hassan, Chamarajanagar, Mandya, Ramanagaram, Davangere and some other districts had to shut down operations in the beginning of the day as they did not have stock. Some of the pumps closed even though they had fuel to protest against the new system. However, operations were normal in Bengaluru,” Akhila Karnataka Petroleum Traders’ Association president B R Ravindranath said.

Sanaulla Anees, vice president, Karnataka State Federation of Petroleum Dealers said the protest has not affected the commuters. “It was a token protest aimed at expressing our position that daily revision of prices was not feasible till the support system of total integration of automation is not in place. Consumers were not affected by the move,” he said.

Anees said daily revision hurts the dealers when fuel prices go down.

Petrol prices come down by a Re 1 today, those who have bought the stock the previous day will face losses. “We appeal to the consumers to bear with the petroleum dealers in case of any inconvenience,” he said.

Though there was no bandh, commuters in several districts had to struggle to find fuel on Friday.

Dealers dependent on state-owned oil marketing companies IOC, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum had to shut operations after running out of stock.

Thankfully, private petrol pumps such as Shell and Reliance operated as usual.