Petrol sale in black market remains unchecked

LAHORE
Despite the federal government’s claims that the petrol supply to the City has been doubled, overcharging by filling stations, sale of petrol on the black market and charging high fares from computers by rickshaw drivers continued under the City District Government Lahore’s nose.
The CDGL claimed that against the demand of 20 lakh litres of petrol per day, around 34 lakh litres of petrol is booked for Lahore on Sunday out of which 70 per cent had arrived at filling stations while the remaining will reach before 12 at night on Monday.
It is pertinent to mention here that despite these claims, long lines outside petrol and CNG stations remained the same and even late at night people continued to stand in long queues for getting petrol and gas.
With this situation, sale of petrol on the black market continued as it is being sold at Rs 200 per litre in the majority of the City areas.
The CDGL has failed to check black marketing and arrest those involved in selling petrol on the black market. People are seen with big cans and bottles at petrol stations and in case a filling station refused to give them petrol, they start fighting.
People coming on vans and cars to petrol stations insist on filling the cans besides the vehicles. To counter the situation, the CDGL has posted an official/officer or staffer at every petrol pump, but instead of relieving the citizens, these officials started performing VIP deliveries.
During a survey, it was revealed that staff of senior management and officials of the CDGL was busy ensuring petrol supply to VIPs, relatives, friends and others from various filling stations.
Manager of a filling station in Johar Town seeking anonymity claimed that he had provided over 1,000-litre in cans at the homes on various VIPs living in Johar Town and nearby areas on the directives of various City District Government Lahore officials. He said the CDGL employee deputed at his pump always came to him with a Parchi, a piece of paper, which he could not turn down.
Usman Ali, a resident of Model Town, said he stood in a line for getting petrol for over four hours and when was about to fill his car, a police van came and some policemen coming out of it with cans and the pump staff filled their cans. “When people objected the situation, the petrol pump staff stopped giving petrol to them,” he alleged.
He demanded the government end these VIP deliveries of petrol besides taking serious action against the black marketers.
Taking advantage of the miseries of general public, especially the commuters, majority of rickshaw drivers started demanding exorbitant fares without any fear of being caught and checked.
It is the city district government to check price hike, but Lahore DCO, his team and other City District Government Lahore employees were found absent from the city roads instead of relieving hundreds of thousands of affected citizens.
Though shortage of petrol didn’t affect majority of rickshaws as most of them are using LPG as fuel, which is easily available in the city at the rate of Rs 120 per kilogram.
A rickshaw driver was charging Rs 200 to Rs 300 for a distance of 1 to 3-km while for extend destinations the drivers are demanding Rs 700 to Rs 800. In normal circumstances, they charge Rs 70 to Rs 100 for 1 to 3-km and Rs 300 to Rs 400 for more than the distance.
Ms Ahsan, a resident of Gulshan-e-Ravi, said she paid Rs 250 to a rickshaw for going to Samanabad Morr from Moon Market Gulshan-e-Ravi. She said in normal days rickshaws charged Rs 70 for this destination.
The woman and hundreds of other commuters questioned who are responsible for this overcharging?
A CDGL’s spokesman denied that the CDGL officials are arranging petrol for VIPs and said the City District Government Lahore appointed staff on 286 petrol pumps in the city to ensure supply of petrol to citizens. He said a control room has also been established at the DCO office to coordinate and monitor supply of petrol.
He said panic buying is behind long queues of petrol. He said today 12 lakh litres of petrol have been supplied to 104 petrol pumps of PSO while rest is being supplied to other companies.
Answering a question about black marketing of petrol, he said the CDGL has launched a crackdown and arrested two people for selling petrol at Yadgar Chowk. He, however, failed to answer how many officials are suspended on this account because black marketing of petrol has been going on for the past three four days. On the question of overcharging by rickshaws in the city, the CDGL spokesman said this didn’t come under the preview of CDGL. The News tried to contact All Pakistan Rickshaw Union president Majeed Ghori, but he didn’t attend the call.