The abrupt shortage of petrol and diesel at filling stations in Kashmir valley was overcome in just few years and as such it looked functionaries at fuel stations had created an artificial scarcity of petrol and diesel just to make fast bucks and fleece people with higher intensity amid chaos across Kashmir . Interestingly the chaos over the supply of petrol at diesel panicked people in Kashmir for the second time in last six months but this time the fuel supplies were restored in a short span of few hours. What deserves the attention of the fuel regulating authorities at the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) department is the fact that the shortage of petrol and diesel in April this year had not panicked people in valley only but also in several states and union territories of the country for quiet different reasons. On the contrary this time shortage of petrol and diesel in Kashmir was reported only in valley but not in any other part of the country. The reasons and causes of the recent shortage of petrol and diesel need to be looked into for the purposes of appropriate corrective measure so that scarcity of petrol and diesel does not occur again and again in Kashmir valley. Shamelessly a leader of the Kashmir Petrol Pump Dealers Association has alleged that fuel tankers were stopped on Jammu-Srinagar highway due to change in the traffic movement on the J&K highway for increasing the frequency of movement of Apple truckloads from Kashmir Valley to other parts of the Country including some metropolitan cities.
Though it is absolutely quiet satisfying that Director Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) Kashmir Dr Ab Salam Mir quickly swung into action and deputed inspection teams for inspecting the supply of petrol and diesel at all the filling stations across Kashmir but better for the government to conduct a thorough probe into the scarcity of petrol and diesel that lasted for few hours at the petrol pumps and identify those responsible for created such an artificial scarcity of petrol and diesel across Kashmir so that such an artificial scarcity of petrol and diesel does not occur and reoccur again and again in Kashmir valley.
While the fact remains that there is nothing new in the priority of the Government for increasing the frequency of the movement of apple truckloads from Kashmir to other parts of the country from October to February every and it is a practice followed from last several decades, the petrol pump dealers are trying to link shortage of petrol and diesl with the movement of apple truckload just to evade action over the artificial scarcity of petrol and diesel obviously created by them to make fast bucks and fleece customers with greater intensity across Kashmir. Though it is absolutely quiet satisfying that Director Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) Kashmir Dr Ab Salam Mir quickly swung into action and deputed inspection teams for inspecting the supply of petrol and diesel at all the filling stations across Kashmir but better for the government to conduct a thorough probe into the scarcity of petrol and diesel that lasted for few hours at the petrol pumps and identify those responsible for created such an artificial scarcity of petrol and diesel across Kashmir so that such an artificial scarcity of petrol and diesel does not occur and reoccur again and again in Kashmir valley.
