Fuel adulteration racket expose fuels apprehensions in Nagaland

Dimapur: In a new development that was not quite unexpected, motorists in Nagaland are reacting to an expose of adulterated fuel found from tankers including some contracted to Indian Oil even as fuel prices continue to soar.

The multi-crore fuel adulteration racket was busted by the newly-floated Rising People’s Party (RPP) on April 21 at Ghorappati, Dimapur, close to the state’s border with Assam, while in the process of mixing treated kerosene to petrol for tankers destined for retail outlets.

The exposure has fuelled rumours of involvement of government as well as non-government players as the RPP has claimed that out of the total 4.8 lakh litres of kerosene, 4 lakh litres are being diverted to “certain individuals who use it to mix with fuel’. A similar fuel-adulteration racket was busted by the Action Committee Against Unabated Taxation (ACAUT) in Dimapur in 2016.

“The authorities have to answer questions as people are suffering”, says Kihoto Sema, who drives a small truck to supply essentials while Kenei Angami, a cop who drives a car everyday to office says ever since the racket was busted, he fills his tank only from fuel outlets that display the density and quality of the fuel.

Without naming the persons involved, RPP claimed that the same people, accused and facing trial in the June 2018 expose, are the ones running the adulteration racket. The person running the adulteration racket, it alleged, has at least 46 fuel outlets throughout the state. It also claimed that the racketeers are being given protection by the law and powerful people in Nagaland.

Claiming that the racket has become an open secret from where the Naga political groups, the state government and even the civil society organisations are benefitting, the RPP, during an interaction with media persons after exposing the racket, had dubbed the racket as “the goose that lays the golden egg” as everyone was in the pocket of the racketeers.

Following the expose, police have reportedly filed an FIR and had launched a manhunt for the prime accused. Mention may also be made that ACAUT has also filed a FIR against the diversion of the state’s quota of kerosene.

Interestingly, even as the party had questioned the silence of the state government on the issue, Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio had snubbed the RPP, retorting sharply, “why do you always blame the government? We cannot watch everyone’s kitchen!”