Many motorists in Kolkata had a tough time because of the fuel pumps’ strike on Tuesday.
Many pumps were shut. Those that had opened had long queues of cars and two-wheelers.
The West Bengal Petroleum Dealers’ Association, which had given the strike call, has over 2,800 pumps in the state. “Almost all were shut on Tuesday,” said a representative of the association.
The retailers of two oil companies, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, had joined the strike. Of the 1,419 Indian Oil pumps in Bengal, 1,037 were operational on Tuesday, said an official of the company.
A meeting with the transport minister eventually prompted the protesting pump owners to withdraw the strike at 6pm, 12 hours before the scheduled end.
The strike was initially called for 24 hours, demanding that oil companies supply ethanol-free petrol during the monsoon. Ethanol-blended petrol attracts more moisture and water droplets than the usual petrol, alleged pump owners.
On Tuesday, a New Alipore resident took his car out in the morning. He was headed to his office in Salt Lake. “I stopped at three pumps — one near my house, another at Hazra and a third near AMRI Hospitals in Salt Lake. The first and the last were shut and the second had dozens of cars in the queue,” said Rahul Das.
He finally refuelled his car from a pump near City Centre I, after waiting for close to 30 minutes.
Representatives of the West Bengal Petroleum Dealers’ Association, which had called the ‘token strike’, met transport minister Firhad Hakim on Tuesday.
“The minister said he will set up a meeting between the companies and us soon. The government’s representatives will be present. We expect a solution to emerge at the meeting,” Snehasish Bhaumik, the vice-president of the petroleum dealers’ association, said.