Rumors of shortage of petrol and diesel spread in many cities including Bhopal-Indore, administration claims – ‘Adequate stock available for 3 months’

After the news of increasing tension between Iran and Israel, the rumor of shortage of petrol and diesel in many districts of Madhya Pradesh gained momentum. In cities like Indore, Ujjain, Dewas and Agar-Malwa, people panicked and ran towards petrol pumps, creating an atmosphere of chaos at many places and forming long queues. However, the administration has clarified that this is just a rumor and there is no fuel crisis in the state.

On Wednesday, the news spread rapidly in many areas that the supply of petrol and diesel may be affected. The effect of this was that people gathered at the pumps to fill the tanks of their vehicles. In Agar Malwa, a petrol pump even had to be closed for some time at night because its reserve quota was exhausted.

Administration said- no need to worry, stock is sufficient

Various district administrations immediately took action to stop the rumours. Bhopal Food Controller Chandrabhan Singh Jadaun said that there is a stock of 58.79 lakh kiloliters of petrol and diesel in Bhopal alone. This quantity is enough to meet the needs of the city for two and a half to three months.

Similarly, in Ujjain also stock of 1605 thousand kiloliters of petrol and 2417 thousand kiloliters of diesel is available. Indore district administration has also appealed to the citizens not to pay heed to any kind of rumour, as there is no shortage of petrol, diesel and cooking gas in the city. Bhopal Collector has also appealed to the people to maintain peace and avoid rumours.

Why did some pumps appear empty?

It is natural to raise the question that if there is no crisis then why did some pumps appear dry? This was answered by Ajay Singh, President of Madhya Pradesh Petrol Pump Owners Association. He said that the reports of running out of fuel are completely baseless.

“The news of pumps drying up or running out of fuel are just rumours. There is no crisis anywhere in MP. In fact, all the companies have implemented a new rule that advance money will have to be deposited before taking fuel. Due to this, some pump operators, which are around 4 to 5 percent, are not able to get fuel on time due to fund problem.” — Ajay Singh, President, Petrol Pump Owners Association

Singh said that there are a total of 4200 petrol pumps in the state and due to adjustment in the process of advance payment, temporary problems were seen at some places, which were soon resolved.

The supply chain is completely fine

According to officials, there is no interruption in supply. The daily supply of about 12 lakh liters of diesel and 9 lakh liters of petrol to 192 pumps of the city continues uninterrupted from the depots of Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum located at Bhaunri in Bhopal. In fact, after the news of LPG cylinder crisis, people also got scared about petrol and diesel, which fueled this rumour. The administration has made it clear that there is no need to panic.