Confusing folks over status of fuel stock Artificial scarcity line

Artificial scarcity. This is the line maintained by CAF and PD Minister L Susindro while referring to the state of fuel stock, particularly petrol and while on the very day (August 26) the Minister said this, the Directorate of CAF and PD issued a notification that 56 petrol outlets would be opened on August 27. Making things more interesting is the fact that the 53 petrol outlets marked to be opened on August 27 are spread across the five valley districts of Imphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal, Bishnupur and Kakching as well as at Senapati and Chandel. And the total number of fuel outlets in the valley districts is 127. So out of 127 and more outlets, only 53 notified to open and this should say something significant. A simple arithmetic of adding and substracting should give a clearer picture on the fuel availability in Manipur at the moment. To give credence to his claim that the fuel scarcity is artificial, the Minister went on to elaborate that against the daily requirements of 298 Kls of petrol, the Malom oil depot released 272 Kls on August 21, 260 Kls on August 22, 326 Kls on August 23 and 325 Kls on August 24. No fuel was released from the Malom oil depot on August 25 as it was a Sunday, was the explanation of the CAF and PD Minister and to give weightage to his claim that the petrol outlets are not opened regularly, thus leading to the seeming shortage of fuel, the Minister declared that security forces would be deployed at all the petrol pumps to ensure that they are opened and the job of supplying fuel to the public is carried on without a hitch. No shortage of fuel is the official line maintained by the Government but the fact stands that fuel was supplied to only 53 petrol outlets on August 27 and hereby hangs a tale, a significant tale in the current situation when a hue and cry has been raised against shortage of petrol. The natural question is, if there is no shortage of petrol then why was the fuel supplied to only 53 outlets on August 27 ? How about the days earlier ? The equation just does not seem to add up and this is where one is constrained to question whether there is a design to keep the people confused on the exact status of the fuel stock at the Malom oil depot begging the question of why the fuel stock at the Malom oil depot was not spelt out when the CAF and PD Minister briefed the media while asserting that the present case of fuel scarcity is nothing but artificial scarcity. The validity of the question why only 53 out of the 127 retail outlets in the valley districts plus the outlets at Senapati and Chandel were set to be opened on August 27 should be studied.
Keep the people confused could well be a strategy nearly perfected to an art form by the present dispensation and this point is being raised not only in connection with the question over the status of fuel stock but also in connection with the status of the SoO pact. If you cannot convince them, confuse them to take along with the yarn that may be spun out is a line that may work for some time, but such an approach has a shelf life and this should not be overlooked. Fact is no one, including Imphal seems to know the status of the SoO pact and the people of Manipur are confused on the status of the fuel or petrol stock at the Malom oil depot. Making things worse is the official notification of the CAF and PD Department a few days back that there is enough stock of fuel, but yet at the same time, all motorists who went to procure fuel for their vehicles were greeted by the poster or banner ‘Petrol Nil’. This is the reality and one hopes things improve in the coming days for in the absence of any public transport most of the people have no option but to rely on their own private vehicles. The ongoing ethnic clash would have certainly stretched the Government and all its resources and making the status of something as fundamental as fuel stock confusing to the people will not exactly help anyone. As things stand today, the people are already in a state of confusion over the status of the SoO pact and adding to their confusion by something as fundamental as ensuring adequate supply of petrol will not help. The CAF and PD Minister also talked about the use of domestic LPGs for commercial purposes as a factor for the shortage of cooking gas but this would be simplifying things too much. This cannot be the crux of the issue.