THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Public sector oil majors seem to be subverting the reservation policy of allocating fuel pumps to SCs/STs by allowing a backdoor entry to the general category.
“The Central government had allocated petrol pumps to the downtrodden SC/ST people for their economic and social upliftment. However, this is being subverted at the initiative of public sector oil firms,” said SC/ST Petrol Pump Owners Association state president C K Mohini.
“If an SC/ST petrol pump owner is not performing, then the company can call in a general category person and allocate 25 per cent stake to that person. Even though 75 per cent ownership remains with the SC/ST owner, they are not even able to enter the pumps. This is a clear sabotage of the government reservation policy,” he said.
According to Abraham George, a businessman from Karukachal who has entered the petrol pump business, “It’s a process wherein we have to deposit Rs 5 lakh to the concerned oil company and pick up 25 per cent share of the SC/ST pump. But in reality, we can run the show and we may pay the real SC/ST owners money - in bulk or in monthly terms - out of the purview of the oil company.”
This shows that the Central government's reservation policy is being subverted and challenged as the general category is making a quiet backdoor entry into running pumps, which are earmarked for the reserved category.
It was B Shankaranand as Union minister for petroleum who had opened the scheme of allocating pumps for SCs/STs with a corpus fund. It was decided that 18 kl of petrol, 18 kl of diesel and 3 kl of oil will be provided.
When contacted, a senior officer of Hindustan Petroleum from Mumbai said on condition of anonymity, “25 per cent corpus fund is for helping the SC/ST owners and the document clearly states that the owners don’t change.” But Mohini begs to differ.
“This is subverting the reservation policy. It's not just the 25 per cent, the whole pump comes under the control of rich businessman.”
In Kerala, there are around 240 SC/ST category petrol pump owners of which more than 40 per cent have surrendered their pumps to general category members.
An SC owner of an Indian Oil Corporation pump in Ranni said, “My pump is gone and I’m out. I had to admit a general category businessman and gave him 25 per cent share of my pump. Now, I cannot even enter the pump.”
“This is a clear violation of reservation and this backdoor entry should never be allowed,” said lawyer K Ramkumar.
Running a petrol pumps is lucrative as owners get a constant commission of Rs 3.22 for a litre of petrol and Rs 2.26 for a litre of diesel even when oil prices fluctuate.