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Oil firms pump more diesel

— Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

DRIVERS IN DISTRESS: Diesel vehicles lined up outside a petroleum outlet in Basavanagudi in Bangalore on Wednesday.

BANGALORE: To meet the growing demand for diesel, public sector oil marketing companies have increased the supply of diesel to petroleum outlets across the State. Indian Oil Corporation alone lifted 2,500 kilolitres of diesel from its Devanagondi plant near Bangalore on Wednesday as against the normal 1,600 kilolitres a day.

The oil marketing companies said they had sufficient stock of diesel in the State even to cater for the increasing demand because of frequent power cuts and appealed to the public not to indulge in panic buying.

The statement comes even as long lines of vehicles were seen in front of petroleum outlets across the State, along with people waiting in queues with cans, to buy diesel.

“Panic buying has created artificial scarcity of diesel in the State though we upped the supply by 40 per cent on Wednesday,” said B. Ashok, general manager, Indian Oil Corporation, Karnataka State Office.

He said while the cumulative growth in demand for diesel was 23 per cent from July 1 to 22 (compared to the relevant period in 2007), the daily growth in demand since July 17 had been a whopping 40 per cent.

Although some portion of the demand could be because of increased power cuts and the resultant use of diesel generator sets, the immediate cause was panic buying.

The power cuts, at the most, could have triggered a 10 per cent growth in demand for diesel, and the companies were prepared to meet the demand, he said.

Mr. Ashok said the oil marketing companies were surprised at the sudden growth in demand for diesel in Bangalore as traditionally Bangalore had been a petrol market.

G.R. Shanmugappa, president of the Federation of Karnataka State Lorry Owners and Agents Associations, ascribed political reasons for the scarcity by saying the Centre was bent upon harassing Karnataka, which was ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Along with drastically cutting power supply from the central grid to Karnataka, the Centre, Mr. Shanmugappa alleged, had also reduced the supply of diesel.

“Otherwise, how can hundreds of trucks from Karnataka get sufficient quantity of diesel at pumps in and around Hosur in neighbouring Tamil Nadu,” he asked.

Trucks from Karnataka buy more than 50,000 litres of diesel from Hosur and there is no scarcity of diesel in Tamil Nadu, he said. Bhairava Siddaramaiah, president, Karnataka State Maxi-cab and Tourist Cab Drivers’ Welfare Association, also cited the phenomenon of diesel scarcity in Karnataka even as it was abundant in Tamil Nadu.

He said all along National Highways in the State, cab drivers were getting less than 10 litres of diesel at any station whereas they could tank up in Tamil Nadu on NH 4. He alleged that the oil marketing companies had created the scarcity in order to market their premium diesel.

The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation and its sister concerns have not been affected by the diesel crunch. KSRTC Director (Operations) K.A. Rajkumar said that the corporations were getting adequate supply of the fuel.

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