Recently , I received a mail from one of my friends forewarning me not to go for refuelling in a particular petrol pump in Hinjewadi belonging to a famous PSU. He told me that his brand new i10 developed engine problem and when he took it to a service station he was told that the reason was poor quality petrol adulterated with water.
A cartoon from cartoonstock.com explains the situation
My wife had sometime back narrated me an incident when she had gone for refuelling in the same petrol pump and the attendant started filling her scooter from reading 2.5l.. She argued why zero was not done.. he said it was zero..After a lot of argument he offered to forego Rs 50.
3 days back , my bike was on reserve and I went to the same petrol pump and asked him to give me full tank on my Yamaha. The other guy standing close to him asked me some question and I truned to answer him .. This was all the moment , the other guy wanted to start.. My wife screamed ..why did you not reset the counter to zero before filling . He said when we put the filling gun on cradle , it automatically sets to zero. This was not true.. I had seen the counter to 2.5 l in a second. The guy was a chor (Thief).. on say a 10 occasions if he is able to start filling with start at 2l in a day, he is able to give 20 litres less .. I think he submits cash equivalent to meter reading of the pump owner and walks away with spare cash.
We need to be aware of this and focus on seeing zero before filling .
Also ask them to allow us to do quality check of petrol using the apparatus provided on all pumps for the purpose once in while.
Some time back , there was a news of cancellation of Petrol pump license of an army widow. She after getting petrol pump allottment had sublet it to a third person in return of Rs20,000 per month. When the third person started doing these ,malpractices and complaints started pouring in, Petroleum ministry cancelled her allottment . The widow then tried self immolation during one of the minister’s meeting.
Some months back, one of my team members who belonged to erstwhile Royal family acquired a petrol pump. I asked him if he was making a lot of money. He said he was not even close to break even because of deep rooted family culture and principles they were neither able to adulterate nor able to cheat by giving less fuel. The business, he said was not honestly viable.
The other day , my neighbour who owns a huge SUV Tata Safari came to me loaded with frustration. He said he had to stand 1.5 hrs on a refuelling station to get his car refuelled with diesel. He had been avoiding standing in long queues but on this day there was not enough fuel to move even 100m beyond the filling station. I tried to analyze this. With large amount of power cuts, many offices, malls, societies,factories are running on generators. This has caused a huge spurt in demand of diesel. The scenes of a truck tempo having 20- 30 drums loaded on it coming for diesel refuelling is becoming commonplace with the boards ‘ Diesel Samplay Aahe( Diesel stocks are over) on all refuelling. May be pump owners are getting a premium by selling them to Commercial enterprises.
What brings to our notice then is the fact that petrol pumps are under a squeeze because of international events and not so principled owners are resorting to adulteration, improper dispending techniques..
I wish some readers can share how we can be more vigilant in ensuring the quantity and quality of fuel.
Wakad : Resident observes 
Tamal said,
September 15, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Hi Arun – This is an eye opener for me. I always thought people mixed kerosene in Petrol but water .. aah. I think a couple of years we had a guy from IIML who was killed by some Petrol Pump Guy because the later was seen adultrating the petrol etc etc.. Is this country able to manage such a huge population and such things that are rampant ? Will this country every become like a devloped nation (UK/USA) ? Can someone improve the demeanour of people who work at this stations ? Is there a way out ?
purose said,
September 16, 2008 at 1:30 pm
During Gupta age ( 200 – 520 BC) India was called a Golden bird and was among the most prosperous nation . It was during that time , people never used to lock their house. There was enough wealth/opportunity/ work for all the people . From their we slipped were we started ranking in most deprived and corrupt nation .
Now i see the resurgence and things are changing for good. I was amazed when I visited Baroda in 2002. Late in night women wearing all jewellery were moving on road alone even till 2am.
This is currently unimaginable in WB, Bihar, Delhi or elsewhere.. I hope the good vibes spread .