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| Crisis: J&K to run out of auto fuel in next 24 hours | | |
Munish Gupta / Sandeep Bhat
Jammu, Jan 8: As Governor’s administration goes and the new government is yet to practically take over charge, for people in town and elsewhere in region a news channel flash came in as warning of a trouble in making but it was too late when they ran for contingency cover.
Around 90 per cent of the 278 petrol pumps across state are almost running dry and essentials, particularly fruits and vegetables etc are going off the stocks. According to estimates obtained from oil tanker operators there will be no fuel for commercial consumption in Jammu and Kashmir after next 24 hours if supplies are not resumed. There were no supplies for second consecutive due to strike of oil companies and nationwide strike of the truckers. Though none of the issues on which the oil companies and truckers are on strike is in the hands of state government but the administration apparently failed to have a contingency plan put in place. Late night reports said that Union Petroleum Minister Murli Deora was engaged in meeting with the striking Oil PSU’s executives and employees but a result was yet to come till filing this story.
When the strike of truckers began on Tuesday, after a weeklong prior warning, its after effects were not taken note of –neither by consumers nor by the government. On Wednesday also there was not much effect on normal life. However, on Thursday when national news channels started beaming reports of fuel and essentials scarcity in other parts of country, people in Jammu ran to the petrol pumps just to find them running dry.
In the absence of fresh supplies the petrol pump owners were resorting to rationing of the petrol supplies and have fixed the quota of petrol and diesel depending on the nature of the vehicles. However, by evening they ran out of whatever stocks they had.
According to Anan Sharma, President of the oil tankers union, at least 90 percent of the existing 278 petrol pumps across the state are facing shortage of fuel supplies and are on verge of running dry within next 24 hours.
Sharma said after civil supplies were disrupted now even army supply chain has been affected due to the ongoing strike by major oil companies like ONGC, BPCL, IOCL and GAIL. He also said that already all the means of transportation are facing short of fuel due to the ongoing strike by the 45000 officers of the major oil companies of the country. It needs to be mentioned that demand of the officers of the oil companies regarding pay anomalies were first raised in the year 2006 but due to the non fulfillment of their demands by the government they were compelled to take the harsh step.
He said it is difficult to predict the duration of the indefinite strike.
While talking to the some of the owners of the Petrol pumps, they said that we are unable to meet the demands of people as we are short of fuel due to ongoing strike by the truckers across the country. They further said that 90 % of the fuel in the pumps has been dried out in the city pumps and its adjoining areas and till evening it will be completely perished.
Long queues were seen right from the morning, as the reports of the shortage of fuel starts flashing in the news channels. People were seen rushing towards the petrol pumps to fill their vehicles.
Meanwhile with no movement of trucks reported in the last 72 hours in and out of the state the markets are gearing up to meet the crisis at hand. Fresh vegetables are available in short supplies and vegetable markets are trading in fewer items only facing the brunt of the strike. All the essential goods including fresh vegetables, fruits and various other items reach Jammu from neighboring states and since last four days not a single truck has entered the state borders to replenish supplies.
The demand and supply graph of various essential food items including fresh vegetables, tropical fruits and other goods is widening with each passing hour. The big markets are deserted in the absence of any fresh trade activity.
Several other essential items which reach Jammu from various other markets of North India are also running out of stocks. One of the members of the trader community in Narwal vegetable market said, on an average 60-70 truck loads of fresh vegetables arrive in Narwal market from outside the state but for the last 48 hours only those trucks have reached Jammu which were in transit. Several vegetable outlets across Jammu city and other areas were also selling the vegetables at exorbitant rates. Meanwhile fresh supply of fruits coming from different markets in New Delhi, Punjab and Haryana are also on hold and creating supply crunch forcing the customers to buy it at higher prices. Large number of housewives we spoke to complained the retail outlets in their areas despite receiving fresh supply of vegetables were selling them at higher prices. The rate of onion and potato have been increased by over Rs 5 per kg while regular fruits such as Banana, oranges and other seasonal fruits are already in short supply and being sold at higher rates.
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