Local youth helped Manjunath seal third violating pump in Lakhimpur Kheri

Like the Mittal pump, the L D Service Station was also allowed to open a month later, on October 15, with a warning from Manjunath that a second offence would invite permanent shutdown.

Rajendra Singh, manager of the L D Service Station, said their samples ‘‘were found clean, so we were allowed to start work.’’ Incidentally, Seth also owns the sole kerosene depot which serves the 2 lakh population of the surrounding 132 villages.

Every month, the depot receives about 1.20 lakh litres of kerosene. And going by the fair price shopowners of the area, a great deal of it is not distributed.

For example, the sole fair price shop catering to Mainhan Gram Sabha—comprising Khotena, Ranibehr and Mainhan villages—which should get 1,000 litres of kerosene per month, is given only 800 litres.

The shop owner, Mahesh Kumar, said he is not given any receipt. ‘‘The rest, a 200-litre drum of kerosene, has to be surrendered,’’ he said. The siphoning of kerosene is supported by a PDS scam on the sidelines. PDS kerosene which should sell for Rs 10 a litre fetches Rs 40 a litre in the black market.

‘‘No one in Lakhimpur gets more than two litres of kerosene a month even though the official entitlement is five litres,’’ admitted a district supplies inspector who has been suspended for his alleged involvement in the racket.

Predictably, Manjunath’s drive was acquiring an avalanche of support from villagers across Lakhimpur Kheri.

In fact, it was a young customer who blew the whistle on the L D Service Station. Manjunath had cultivated cordial relations with the locals in order to develop a network of informants. And the youth had called on Manjunath’s cellphone to alert him about the L D Service Station.

Said Devendra Prasad Misra in Udehra village: ‘‘Everyone cheats us. We don’t even get our due of two litres a month. Don’t you know about that IOC officer Manjunath? The one who was murdered because he cracked down on petrol pumps? We have heard he refused a Rs 4.50 lakh bribe from the petrol mafia’’.