However, its effort failed to pay dividend on the day, as top officials of Ministry of Home Affairs -- the ministry responsible for enforcing the decision - were out of the Kathmandu Valley.[break]
“We could not hold meeting Tuesday because Home Minister, Secretary and other senior officials are in Pokhara to attend the convention of security officials and chief district officers of the western development region,” said a Home Ministry official.
Spokesperson of the MoCS, Ganesh Dhakal, told Republica that his ministry took up the case of fuel shortage, solely emanating from subsequent strikes of two factions of petroleum transporters, with high priority on Tuesday.
“But we couldn´t get the Act enforced due to technical reasons,” he said, expressing hope that the decision to this connection will be taken soon.
The Act gives the government a sweeping authority to take punitive action against strikes in essential service sectors, including petroleum supply. The Home Ministry can activate it with a ministerial-level decision. For enforcement, however, it will need to publish the decision in the gazette. It can be done in a day if the government felt the urgency.
But the government has so far remained silent to safeguard the general public´s interest, even though it has already been eleven days since the rival factions of petroleum transporters enforced the strikes alternatively over petty issues.
The short supply continued to leave the hapless consumers bear the brunt and queue in front of refilling stations for hours on Tuesday as well.
Interestingly, following the public pressure, Central-Region Tanker Operators Association (CRTOA) -- one of the two splinter groups of transporters -- withdrew its strike declared for the day.
“The import and distribution of fuel went on normally on Tuesday,” said Saroj Pandey, president of Nepal Petroleum Dealers Association (NPDA).
Nepal Oil Corporation said it distributed 350 kiloliters of petrol in the Valley on Tuesday. Although the volume of supply exceeded normal daily consumption by around 100 kiloliters, it failed to make any impact in the market.
“Basically consumers are rattled by shortages that trouble them frequently. Hence, the quantity proved simply short to keep consumers at ease,” said Pandey.
The fuel shortage had surfaced in the market on June 23, when CRTOA launched the strike, bringing import and distribution of fuel in the central region to a grinding halt. It withdrew strike after NOC agreed to fulfill its demand and withdrew the decision to relocate 60 tankers originally hired to import fuel from Barauni, India to Raxaul-Kathmandu route.
But on June 26, Nepal Petroleum Transporters Federation (NPTF) -- the other splinter group of the transporters importing fuel from Barauni -- launched a strike, demanding that NOC give them business and allow them to operate on the new route.
Surprisingly, NOC agreed to it as well, following which the federation withdrew its strike on June 29. Such reckless strike, meanwhile, has penalized the helpless consumers.
Related story
‘NOC brass pockets Rs 30 million from fuel transporters’
