Petrol pumps: Allahabad High Court summons UP chief secretary

The Allahabad High Court today summoned the Uttar Pradesh chief secretary on May 25 to explain about a government order related to erring petrol pump owners in the state.
The Lucknow bench of the court said that it appears that the action of the STF is being diluted under pressure of someone very influential who wants to save the petrol pumps owners.
It directed the state to appoint receivers to distribute petrol or diesel in case the petrol pump owners threaten to go on strike.
A bench of justices Sudhir Agrawal and Virendra Kumar (II) passed the order on a PIL by Ashok Nigam and Pawan Bisht.

In the PIL filed on May 15, the petitioners alleged that the action of the state government against erring petrol pumps was just but subsequently the state has slowed down the action under pressure of the petrol pump union.
The STF has also been restrained from taking action any further, it further alleged.

As the state government filed its affidavit which intimated the court that the chief secretary had issued the government order on May 2, which said that STF no longer would take action in the matter and a committee would be constituted at district level.
"It appears that at some level, there is something wrong on the part of government also and somebody is trying to protect erring petrol pump owners by avoiding/deferring strict action against them," the court said.

The oil companies' lawyer said that petrol pump owners closing petrol pumps may create a panic, as they had done earlier also, and it is probably for this reason, the state has taken a lenient view in the matter.
On this, the court pulled up the state on it and asked the state government to avoid any such blackmailing or illegal activities by issuing a direction to all district magistrates concerned to ensure running of petrol pumps.