With the Civil Supplies Department stopping the supply of diesel and petrol to police vehicles for a week, the City Police are planning alternative measures so that their functioning will not be affected if such incident takes place again.
Plans are afoot to enter into tie-up with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) which will ensure diesel and petrol being supply to Kochi police directly by the petroleum company.
According to police, talks were held with BPCL officials last week and a proposal was given for getting supply of the fuel directly from the oil company. However, the proposal has to be taken forward by the new City Police Commissioner to confirm the tie-up.
“Last week, the Civil Supplies Department stopped the supply of diesel to our vehicles for several days. After this, the former Police Commissioner had conducted discussions with BPCL officials for an alternative supply of fuel from them. We had given proposal to BPCL in this regard and it seems interested in the tie-up. Now the rest of the matter is with the new commissioner,” police said.
According to the new proposal given by the City Police, a petrol pump would be set up in Tripunithura or Kochi Armed Reserve Camp. Besides, police would be supplied diesel from the outlets directly operated by the company in the city. “In Thiruvananthapuram, there is a petrol pump for the police. Besides they also get petrol from the company outlets.
We are trying to get a similar outlet for the police in Kochi also. The payment to the company would be made on monthly basis according to the bill furnished by the company,” a police official said.
There are 373 vehicles available with the Kochi City Police. Of these 160 vehicles are two-wheelers, 12 are trucks and buses and the rest of them are cars and jeeps. On an average Rs 11 lakh is paid by the Kochi police for diesel and petrol. The supply of fuel was stopped after an order that all the government departments should pay a deposit of Rs 10,000 for each vehicle. Following this several police activities came to a halt and the police could not provide escorts to VIPs.
Later on the assurance from Civil Supplies Minister Anoop Jacob, the fuel supply was resumed.