Telangana asks OMCs to ramp up fuel supply as panic buying continues

Hyderabad, April 28 (IANS) As fuel shortage triggered long queues and even resulted in shutdown of petrol pumps in Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana for the second day on Tuesday, the state civil supplies department has issued emergency orders to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to effectively flood the market with fuel.

Civil Supplies Commissioner M. Stephen Raveendra has issued the emergency orders to OMCs. To front-load the supply chain, OMCs are taking advance indents from dealers and have deployed a massive fleet of 3,100 fuel tankers across the state.

The department said that to ensure these stocks reach the pumps before they run dry, it has escalated its oversight, mandating ground-level stock reports from all retail outlets every three hours and also monitoring the situation daily through teleconferences.

The department has also issued strict directives to guarantee that farmers will have uninterrupted access to fuel, ensuring that crucial harvesting and paddy procurement operations are not delayed.

The department said that it aggressively increased statewide petroleum supplies by 126 per cent since Sunday. This quick and decisive action was taken to stabilise local fuel stations that are currently facing strain from a sudden and unusually high demand.

According to officials, the unexpected rush at local fuel pumps is being driven by a combination of three major factors. First, following a recent price revision that raised industrial diesel to Rs 150 per litre, bulk commercial buyers are exploiting the system by filling up at regular public gas stations, where the price is still capped at Rs 95 per litre. Second, supply issues in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra have caused heavy cross-border traffic, with out-of-state buyers flocking to Telangana border districts like Khammam and Nirmal just to purchase fuel.

Rumours regarding upcoming post-election price hikes have caused the general public to unnecessarily panic-buy and hoard fuel, rapidly depleting local reserves.

As of April 27, daily statewide diesel distribution skyrocketed by 151 per cent, surging from an average of 7,348 KLs to 18,449 KLs. Statewide petrol distribution has also nearly doubled, rising by 95% from 5,883 KLs to 11,490 KLs.

To protect the capital region from any potential shortages, total fuel supplies in Hyderabad have been heavily reinforced, seeing an overall boost of 43 per cent. Specifically, the city's diesel stocks were increased by 46 per cent (from 3,393 KLs to 4,957 KLs), and petrol stocks were raised by 40 per cent (from 3,908 KLs to 5,466 KLs).

The department assures the public that there is absolutely no shortage of fuel in Telangana. Citizens are strongly urged to ignore unfounded rumours and purchase fuel only as they normally would, as stations will continue to be fully stocked to meet all public and agricultural needs.

--IANS

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