Truckers’ protests: Maha police escort for fuel tankers, security to bunkers

Mumbai: With the flash agitation by truckers taking its toll, the Maharashtra Government on Tuesday decided to provide police escorts to all petrol-diesel tankers and security at all fuel pumps in the state, officials said here on Tuesday.

The All India Petrol Dealers Association (AIPDA) spokesperson Ali Daruwala said that a meeting was held with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis where the crucial decision was taken.

Daruwala, who is also the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Spokesperson said a decision was taken to provide police escort to all petrol-diesel tankers leaving from the depots to the 4,500-odd petrol pumps in the state as an immediate step to tide over the crisis.

Besides at least two constables shall be stationed at all petrol pumps to ensure smooth movement of the fuel tankers as well as pacify the huge crowds that gather for a refill.

He said that by Monday evening, 90 per cent of the petrol bunkers in the state had ‘run dry’ leading to major panic. Lakhs of vehicle owners virtually mobbed the petrol pumps.

Daruwala assured that since morning, tankers have started filling up petrol-diesel at the IOCL, HPCL and BPCL depots and are en route to the ‘dry’ retail fuel pumps.

“The CM and Deputy CM have assured us and the customers that there is no cause for panic, and are confident that the situation would be 80 per cent normal by this evening,” Daruwala told IANS.

Federation of All Maharashtra Petrol Dealers Association (FAMPEDA) president Uday Lodh, said the problems were compounded as more than 40 per cent of the petrol-diesel oil depots of various OMCs were shut since Monday.

“While depots like Wadala, Manmad, Ahmednagar, Akola and Chandrapur were shut, others like Vashi, Solapur, Pune, Miraj and Nagpur were functional, which has also affected the fuel flow to the retailers. The issue must be resolved on priority,” Lodh told IANS.

Even in Mumbai, several petrol pumps put up hand-written notices proclaiming ‘No petrol-diesel’, angering the drivers of hordes of vehicles that had queued up to fill fuel.

At many places in Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, Palghar, Ratnagiri, Pune, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Nashik, Solapur, Nagpur and on some of the major state, inter-state and national highways, there were heated exchanges between the customers and the fuel pump staffers.

Serpentine queues of vehicles are witnessed at various petrol pumps as fuel tanker drivers have also joined the agitation protesting against the new MV Act rules stipulating stringent punishment of 10 years jail and Rs 7 Lakh fine for hit-and-run accident cases.

On some highways in the state like Palghar, Nashik, Nagpur, Solapur, Jalgaon and other locations, vehicle queues of several kms were witnessed on both sides of the roads and the fuel pumps.

The Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patole, Nationalist Congress Party General Secretary Dr. Jitendra Awhad, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Kishore Tiwari, several farmers unions and transporters organisations, have strongly criticised the new law and demanded its immediate repeal.

The government has also urged the protesting truckers not to disturb trucks-tankers carrying essentials like milk, petrol-diesel, foodstuffs, vegetables, fruits, or other essential services like ambulances, school buses, etc, said an official.

Since Monday, thousands of milk-tankers with chilled or fresh milk stocks, bound for Mumbai from interior Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh were stranded or delayed, leading to lakhs of Mumbaikars going without milk or their morning cup of tea-coffee on Tuesday.

The truckers’ impromptu stir has hit supplies of fruits, vegetables, foodgrains both to the APMCs and wholesale markets and also the retail markets down to the neighbourhood vendors, with prices already shooting up in urban centres like Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nashik, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Nagpur.