Illegal Indore petro dealers face the heat

A letter issued by the ministry of road transport and highways, has the petrol and diesel retailers in Indore in a tizzy.

Several retail outlets of public-sector undertakings (PSU) and private oil companies are operating in the city without proper clearances. These permissions were given by the concerned district collectors without taking into consideration the guidelines of the ministry.

The unauthorised petrol pumps have not only increased the threat of accidents on the highways, but also put obstacles in the expansion plans of the ministry.

The ministry has now decided to take up the matter seriously and has issued a letter asking the state government to ensure that the petrol pumps adhere to its guidelines.

This, has created ripples among the officials of the oil companies and also among the district collectors, who had issued no-objection certificates (NOC) without taking permission from the ministry.

Retail outlets of oil companies including IOC, BPCL, HPCL, IBP, Essar Oil and Reliance Industries have cropped-up across the state in general and along the Agra-Mumbai Highway (NH-3) popularly called A-B road in particular, without getting the required NOCs from the ministry of road transport.

The Madhya Pradesh government, woke up only when the secretary of the department, drew the attention of the chief secretary, Vijay Singh, to the anomalies in allotment of pumps.

Following this, the commissioner of food, civil supplies and consumer protection, issued a letter to all the district collectors asking them to issue NOCs only after getting necessary clearances from the ministry.

The letter, a copy of which is given to the media persons, said, "Instances have come to our notice that some fuel stations have started functioning merely on the basis of the clearances taken from the district administration, without obtaining the NOC for access to the fuel stations from the ministry. Such unauthorised functioning of the fuel stations by the oil companies is a serious safety hazard and also one of the causes of accidents on the national highways."

The ministry has directed the chief secretary to look into the matter and issue appropriate instructions to the concerned district magistrates, so that functioning of the fuel stations could only be started after obtaining NOC from the ministry, for the access road, providing connectivity to fuel stations from the national highways.

Later, the executive engineer Public Works Department (PWD), national highway division, had issued a letter on June 10 to all oil companies having operations in the state. It directed them to remove all unauthorised work and submit fresh proposals as per the norms of the ministry.

Talking to the press, the newly appointed secretary, ministry of road transport and highways L K Joshi, admitted having received some complaints retail outlets opening up without proper clearances from the ministry.

"As per the guidelines of the ministry, it is mandatory to take NOC," he informed. However, in some cases the collectors issued NOC for setting up of retail outlets.