BHOPAL: Rumours over petrol and diesel supply drying out have triggered panic in many parts of western and southwestern Madhya Pradesh’s Malwa-Nimar region since Tuesday evening.
Long queues of two-wheelers, four-wheelers, and commercial vehicles have been reported in various districts of the region, including the State’s chief minister Mohan Yadav’s home district Ujjain, the adjoining district and state’s commercial capital Indore, besides neighbouring districts, Mandsaur, Neemuch, Alirajpur, Jhabua, Ratlam, Khargone, Barwani, Agar-Malwa and Shajapur districts.
However, the local authorities have ruled out any possibility of petrol and diesel running out of stock in the wake of the West Asia conflict.
They also ensured enough stock of the fuel.
Those lined up in long queues at a few petrol pumps in Indore said that they rushed following widespread rumours on petrol and diesel supply and a possible COVID-19-like lockdown.
Long queues and a sudden rush of customers at petrol pumps even led to a few of the pumps halting operations due to overheating of petrol supply machines and overburdening of the on-duty staff.
There were visuals of big drums on tractors being brought to petrol pumps in a few rural areas.
According to a petrol pump owner in Mandsaur district, there is no shortage of petrol-diesel stock, but a sudden rush of customers at the pump caused overheating of machines, forcing the halting of operations for a while.
Already panic-struck due to the rumours, those waiting at the pumps where the operations were halted for some time due to technical faults, panicked further.
“We appeal to the local administration to deploy police security at pumps, to prevent any untoward incidents due to the panic created by rumours,” the petrol pump owner in Mandsaur district said.
Authorities in all those districts of western MP, from where the panic buying and long queues were reported at petrol pumps, came out with a detailed appeal and advisory, ruling out any shortage of petrol and diesel.
In Indore, the district collector Shivam Verma, while assuring that there was neither shortage of petrol-diesel at pumps nor at the big supply depots, warned those spreading rumours of stern legal action.
“All those spreading rumours, leading to panic, are being identified and stern legal action will be initiated against them soon,” Verma said.
As per reports, the frenzied buying of petrol-diesel resulted in many petrol pumps selling 3-4 four times more than what they normally sell in a single day.
As per sources in tribal dominated Jhabua and Alirajpur districts, a few pumps that daily sold around 4000 to 5000 litres of petrol, sold three to four times more in less than 24 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday.
In Khargone district, the administration has fixed a limit of up to three litres of petrol at a time for two-wheelers, petrol of up to Rs 1000 and diesel of up to Rs 2000 at a time for each private four-wheeler at petrol pumps across the district.