BY CORRESPONDENT
Aizawl:
Mizoram has been facing acute shortage of petrol and diesel as most of the filling stations in the state, especially in the capital city, were completely dry due to a disagreement between the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and the Mizoram IOCL Transporters Forum.
While long queues of vehicles were seen in front of the filling stations earlier, a large number of them remained closed on Wednesday due to unavailability of fuel.
Even those who were selling petrol clandestinely also did not have anything to sell due to the acute scarcity of fuel.
The state government issued a control order on April 1, according to which even those having pre-paid fuel coupons have to have permits issued by the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs department.
The department appealed to the people not to resort to hoarding of fuel in view of the possibility of the prolonged shortage.
In a press statement issued on Tuesday, the Mizoram IOCL Transporters Forum said that they refused to transport oil due to disagreement over the transportation costs fixed by the IOCL.
“Our contract with the IOCL expired and when the new rates were released the transportation rates were fixed at a lower rate than in 2016,” the statement said.
The state government was approached by the transporters and the former has been taking steps to redress the problems being faced by the oil transporters, the statement added.
Meanwhile, the prices of petrol and diesel hit the roof again in the state with the repeated hike in oil prices during the past few days.
Petrol cost Rs 103.41 per litre while diesel cost Rs 87.81 per litre and Extra premium cost Rs 108.04 per litre as on Wednesday.