To prevent cheating of the citizens on petrol pumps, public campaign of ‘Surajya Abhiyan’ launched
‘Petrol’ has become an essential commodity in human life similar to the other essential commodities in day to day life. When we visit petrol pumps for filling the tanks, citizens are always cheated through various means such as supplying less quantity than paid for, supplying adulterated petrol etc., which is a sort of corruption on a large scale. Many people are aware of such malpractices; however, they do not make any efforts to expose such misdeeds because either they do not wish to do so, or they have little knowledge about the legal aspects involved. As a result, the corrupt find it easy to defraud and continue to cheat on a large scale. To stop this cheating, the patriots have now made firm decision to take steps through ‘Surajya Abhiyan’ (Campaign to Usher Good Governance), informed the convener of ‘Surajya Abhiyan’ Adv. Nilesh Sangolkar.
Implementation of the campaign : Under the ‘Surajya Abhiyan’, 484 petrol pumps in 35 Districts in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Gujarat, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were visited from 8th to 10th December 2017. During these visits, survey was carried out to ensure that the rights of consumers are protected, the rules framed by petrol companies are observed. The campaign was implemented by visiting 64 petrol pumps in pune and pimpri chinachwad District While implementing the campaign, letter was given to the District Weight and Measurement Controller requesting him to give the guidance by participating in the campaign.
Pitiable situation observed on the petrol pumps : As per the Government orders, apart from the right to fill petrol in the vehicle, the consumer has rights to check whether the petrol is adulterated, if he has such doubt, demand the measuring equipment to check whether there is any cheating in the quantity of petrol. Similarly, it is a binding on the petrol pump to make various facilities available at petrol pumps such as free of cost air-filling, providing toilets, drinking water etc. During the survey, it was found that many such facilities are absent at many places.
During the survey, many serious things such as cheating of citizens, lack of facilities were observed. Therefore, the convener of ‘Surajya Abhiyan’ Adv. Nilesh Sangolkar demanded that immediate action should be taken against the defaulters and stop the cheating of the consumers. This demand was made with ‘ Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas Govt. Of India’, ‘ District Weight and Measurement Controller’ and ‘The Consumer Protection Department of the State’. Adv. Sangolakar also appealed the citizens to contribute their might by participating in the campaign; those willing to participate should contact on phone number 9595984844.
