SURPRISE VISITS AT DELHI PUMPS
NEW DELHI, NOIDA/ GHA
ZIABAD: After few petrol pumps in Uttar Pradesh was found to dupe customers by dispensing less petrol, several teams conducted raids in petrol pumps both in Delhi and Noida.
Teams of Weights & Measures Department on Wednesday conducted surprise checks at 20 petrol pumps across the national capital to curb illegal activities such as short dispensing of petrol and diesel.
These surprise visits are a part of the intense review ordered by Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Imran Hussain following reports of illegalities at different petrol pumps in neighbouring states causing distress to consumers.
Secretary (Legal Metrology) has informed the Minister that Weights & Measures / Legal Metrology Department is now sending several teams to Delhi for conducting surprise checks in petrol pumps.
Under the rules, in the case of any short delivery the dealer shall stop the delivery through the pump immediately and inform the legal metrology officer concerned to recalibrate the pump.
The Minister has directed senior officers of the Department to review action taken by inspecting teams on daily basis.
Hussain had emphasised about the need to ensure that citizens obtain accurate and unadulterated quantities of fuel purchased by them.
Hussain had further sought the cooperation and support of public for checking the menace of supplying lesser quantities of fuel by erring Petrol Pumps and accordingly appealed to the citizens of Delhi to report about any such illegal activities which may come in their notice.
Similarly, acting strictly on the orders by Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the district administration of Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddh Nagar along with senior officials from various departments made surprise visits at several petrol pumps in both the districts on Wednesday.
Two petrol pumps in Ghaziabad were found to be involved in short-selling of petrol and diesel which were seized by the district administration.
According to the orders, there should be inspections and surprise checks of all the petrol pumps in every district of Uttar Pradesh to detect the cheater meter held responsible for short-selling of petrol and diesel. Such is done by tampering with the system in dispensing unit by installing an electronic chip.
“Following the orders, the district administration has formed teams comprising of officials from the UP police, special task force (STF), the weights and measure department and the food and civil supply department for inspection of all retail outlets. We conducted an inspection at some pumping stations in the city like sector 63, sector 105, sector swarn nagri Greater Noida but no tampering was found there” said Amit Kumar, Additional District Magistrate, Gautam Buddh Nagar.
In Ghaziabad district, the tampered machines of two petrol pumps were sealed by the team led by SDM C. B Singh. A petrol pump in Sanjay Nagar while other at Meerut road in Ghaziabad was too found duping the customers by dispensing 20-200ml less fuel per litre.
A special task force of the Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday raided over a dozen petrol pumps in Lucknow. They found that the owners of these pumps had inserted a chip-like device in their dispensing machines to dupe consumers. These chips cost around Rs 3,000 each and are used to remote control the outflow from machines and give customers nearly 10 per cent less petrol or diesel for every litre paid.