By IANS
Mumbai : Petrol and diesel pumps across Maharashtra remained shut Monday as their owners went on strike to press demands for a fuel marker kit at every outlet to detect adulteration.
“The response to the 24-hour strike call is near total with almost all of 2,700 petrol pumps barring a few company operated ones remaining closed,” Ravi Shinde, president of the Mumbai Petrol Dealers’ Association, told IANS.
The state-wide strike began at Sunday midnight.
Petrol pump owners have been insisting on provision of the marker system, which they claim to have invented in order to check the purity of fuel supplied to them by petroleum companies.
“It is unfair to penalise retail outlet owners for adulteration while denying them the right to check whether the fuel delivered to them from the company tankers is pure,” said Vilas Salpekar, secretary of the Nagpur Petrol Dealers’ Association.
“The kit will not only spare us harassment at the hands of corrupt inspectors but also help identify and eliminate adulteration, if any, at the individual petrol pump’s end,” added Pune Petrol Dealers’ Association chief Nitin Kankaria.
While Salpekar alleged that the kerosene marker system promoted by Petroleum Minister Murli Deora was defective, Kankaria told reporters in Pune that Monday’s strike would be followed up with a national level strike Sep 11 if their demand was not met by then.