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Maharashtra petro dealers go on strike -- Call it `no-purchase campaign'

Our Bureau

MUMBAI, July 14

PETROLEUM dealers in Maharasthra have decided to suspend lifting of fresh stocks from midnight July 14.

This follows the failure of their talks with oil companies on inspection of products before lifting them from the refineries.

``It is not a strike. Rather, we call it a no-purchase campaign,'' Mr. Ramesh Kundanmal, President, Federation of All Maharashtra Petrol Dealers' Association (Fampeda) told Business Line on Friday.

If the campaign continues, 1,700 petrol bunks, all over Maharashtra, are expected to dry up by Monday. Although petrol falls under the Essential Commodities Act, the association insists that it will not stop them from continuing with the campaign.

The oil companies can check the products for purity after selling to dealers. ``This conveniently shifts any blame of adulteration on our heads,'' Mr Kundanmal said. ``We have to buy the products in good faith but they are allowed to take the products to testing labs after we buy them. This is unfair,'' he said.

The Mumbai High Court had, in December 1999, ruled that any dealer caught selling adulterated petrol, would face a sentence of up to three months. Also, the Naphtha and Solvents Act, June 2000 prohibits naphtha being mixed with petrol.

``We want the right to check the product before we buy it, because we have reason to believe that the products we buy from the refineries are suspect,'' he said. Two petrol dealers were arrested in April this year for selling adulterated petrol.

``We are not hoarding petrol, merely refusing to stock it,'' the officials said. The State Government has threatened to cancel the licenses of petrol bunk owners participating in the campaign. But the association has said that a hard stand taken by the g overnment would precipitate matters. ``The campaign may then spread to Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, and later to the entire country,'' he added.

The talks with officials of four oil majors and the State Government officials could not make any headway. Fampeda has accused the oil companies of refusing them the right to conduct tests.