Imphal, August 31: The next time your four wheeler or two wheeler sputters to a stop after refuelling at one of the petrol pumps or the next time you have to fork out as much as Rs 30 for a litre of kerosene, don't curse your luck or anyone for there is a well organised racket behind to hit your vehicle and your wallet.

Known to only the insiders, there are numerous centres for stocking fuel as well as for spiking petrol and diesel with kerosene and to those with a ring side view, these centres are known as �refineries.� There are at present about 10 such refineries at Khurkhul, Sangakpham, Sayang, Chingamakha, Kakwa, Kwakeithel, Wang-khei, Khabam Lamkhai and Deulalane.

Each of these refineries have a storage capacity of anything between 20 thousand and 40 thousand litres of fuel at a time.

Despite the perpetual shortage of kerosene in the State, the quota of the State is 63 lakh litres of kerosene every three months.

This works out to about 21 lakh litres of kerosene every month which in effect means that each voter in Manipur can get at least one litre of kerosene every month.

The State's quota of kerosene is given quarterly every year, which means that the share can be lifted every three months.

There is also a clause which says that if the State could not lift its quota for a period, it can always do so in the next turn.

This in effect means that the recent economic blockade is just an alibi to cook up an explanation for the current shortage of kerosene in the State.

The question is, where does the State share disappear? One explanation is of course the rampant adulteration of petrol and diesel and the hoarding at the private refineries.

Significantly all the fuel for Manipur are lifted through the Indian Oil Corporation at Chingmeirong (Assam Oil Division).

No private party or individual can go and lift fuel from the refinery without the consent of the IOC at Imphal and the fuel transported by the authorised tankers are deposited at the IOC depot and later they are allotted to the fuel pumps for sale to the public.

Necessary checks to verify the density as well as temperature of the fuel are conducted regularly at the Chingmeirong depot.

This is basically to ensure that petrol and diesel being brought in are not adulterated along the way.

The adulteration process is known as �exchange� amongst the fuel cartel.

There is method in the exchange process.

For every tanker which has the capacity to carry 53 barrel and 1000 litres of petrol or diesel, anything between 9 to 12 barrel of kerosene is added (One barrel contains 200 litres).

The charge of each barrel exchanged is Rs 400/500 and this goes to the pocket of the tanker driver.

This is one way in which kerosene disappears from the market.

However this is just a drop in the 63 lakh litres of kerosene allotted to the State every three months and the question still remains why there is a perpetual shortage of kerosene in the market.

The enterprising people who have opened their private refineries invest a huge amount of money and take home a huge quantity of kerosene every month or every three months.

Though the FCS Department releases the kerosene quota of each month in the latter part of the second week, the refinery wallahs are known to get their supply in bulk at the beginning of every month.

With such a huge quantity of kerosene at their disposal, the fuel cartel are free to control the price of the fuel and adulterate petrol and diesel any time they want.

The common practice is to keep the price of kerosene a little lower than diesel.

Some of the better known petrol outlets in Imphal are known to be closely associated with such people.

In fact so close is the bond that some petrol pumps are known to get their share of petrol and diesel from these private refineries.

This explains why petrol in the black market at certain parts of the State are sold at the same price as the fuel at the oil pumps.

The same thing goes for diesel too and at times a litre of diesel in the black can be had for Rs 25 per litre against the Government fixed price of Rs 28.37.How is it possible for those in the black market to sell their fuel at the same rate as the petrol pumps or at times even lower? Compare this with kerosene where the price is always higher than the Government fixed rate and the picture falls into place.

The question is, are those in positions of authority completely unaware of the presence of such fuel cartel? Suspicions have been raised against the non-official employees of the Chingmeirong IOC (AOD), who are not on the payroll of the depot but nevertheless enjoy immense clout when it comes to the question of allotment of fuel.

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