‘No shortage’: Govt sets up monitoring cell to review fuel supply across state

The monitoring cell was activated on May 11 and the situation has been monitored closely over the past two days, with the petroleum branch getting daily reports from the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) generating district as well as state wise reports along with reports from over 7,500 individual fuel stations across the state.

Senior government officials said that although the OMCs too have monitoring cells, the government is strictly monitoring and immediately taking required action. “There is no shortage of fuel. In the past few days, outlets’ sales have increased by 30-40 per cent, possibly also due to price hike speculation but the situation has eased out today. To refill, the OMCs have extended the timings of their deports opening from 6 am instead of 9 am,” a government official told this newspaper.

Officials added that the monitoring cell is taking regular review meetings and would remain active till the situation improves.

On Friday, in accordance with the appeal made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for economical use of the country’s resources and ‘Save Fuel’, the state government declared that 300 new buses would be pressed into service from Saturday on various routes of the state “without any grand inauguration ceremony.”

“Despite the launch of such a large number of buses, no grand inauguration ceremony, ribbon cutting or VIP programmes as per protocol will be organised. The main objective behind this approach of the state government is to keep public welfare paramount instead of festivities. Usually, on the occasion of the launch of such big projects, thousands of litres of fuel and lakhs of rupees of government money are wasted in bringing buses from far and wide to the programme venue as per protocol and in grand events,” the state government said in a release.

It added that keeping in mind the present situation, the Chief Minister has resolved to have ‘Zero Ceremony’ with the aim of saving fuel and also protecting the environment. Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi said that with the implementation of the state government’s decision, these 300 new buses would start plying directly from the designated depots.