Daily Times

LAHORE: A severe shortage of petrol observed in the city on Tuesday when the government announced the decrease in petroleum products’ prices.This scribe during his visit to different petrol pumps observed that citizen were facing many problems and waiting in the queues to get their fuel tanks filled. While several petrol pumps have refused to provide the supply of petrol to citizens allegedly saying that the main supply chain of petrol has been stopped from back..A large number of citizens with their family members have also observed on filling stations for vehicle tanks. A teenager boy talking to Daily Times told that he came with his mother for filling the fuel tank of his motorcycle because the other queues were too much longer as compared to the line which is separate for families. He said, “Most of the filling pumps are closed and deliberately not giving the fuel to them and want to create shortage of petrol and diesel.”

According to City District Government Lahore (CDGL), currently 305 petrol pumps are functional in the different localities of the city. Meanwhile, the CDGL raiding teams, in the supervision of price control magistrates (PCM’s), town administration and assistant commissioners, have visited many petrol pumps on the midnight of Monday and Tuesday. A CDGL team has sealed six petrol pumps in the city due to not deliberately purchasing the petrol from the supplier and take into custody of their
managers along with another manage arrested on the complaints of the consumers due to overcharging.Lahore District Coordination Officer (DCO) Captain (r) Muhammad Usman visited petrol pumps for monitoring the performance of the CDGL raiding team in the area of Jail Road, Liberty, Gulberg and Model Town.The DCO said that he has directed to all PCM’s, town administrators and assistant commissioners for visiting all petrol pumps of the city and check their petrol and diesel stock on urgent basis.He said that 60 percent petrol and diesel out of to total supply has reached Lahore since morning and the remaining 40 percent supply will reach midnight.Similarly, Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif has taken notice of the news regarding unavailability of petrol in some cities of Punjab.

He has ordered that provision of petroleum products on new rates should be ensured and Cabinet Committee on Price Control, provincial administration,commissioners and the DCOs should take necessary steps in this regard so that people should not faceany difficulty.The chief minister said that there should be no complaint of unavailability of petrol or diesel and it is the responsibility of the authorities concerned to ensure provision of petrol on fixed rates to the citizens. He said that an immediate action should be taken over unavailability of petrol or diesel as well as against the owners of the petrol pumps involved in overcharging.