Hours of wait yields no oil, angry two-wheeler owners block Satdobato-Lagankhel road

Online Khabar

Kathmandu, December 10. Hundreds of owners of two-wheelers had to queue up for hours in vain on Thursday, thanks to negligence on the part of the Nepal Oil Corporation.

After coming to know through a public notice that stated that Nepali Army’s Shaktidevi Petrol Pump (Lagankhel) was one of the fuel stations authorised to distribute oil to two-wheelers (lot numbers 26 to 40), people started forming a queue from early in the morning.

As the pump did not start providing oil even at 12.00 (as per the notice, the pump was supposed to distribute oil from 9 am), the people got infuriated. Showing the notice published in the government media like Gorkhapatra daily, they asked Nepali Army and police officials why they were not refuelling their vehicles.

Pump authorities said they will not distribute petrol to two-wheelers, no matter what, for they had not received directives to do the same. However, NOC Spokesperson Mukunda Ghimire said they had instructed the pump to distribute oil to the two-wheelers.

Infuriated, the people went to the Lalitpur District Administration Office and met Chief District Officer Yadav Prasad Koirala. They demanded that he make arrangements for distribution of oil through the petrol pump as per the notice. Koirala pledged to do the needful.

But the oil did not come. The people obstructed traffic movement along the Satdobato-Lagankhel road for about two hours. A team under Lalitpur Traffic Police Chief Sitaram Hachhetu used force to remove obstructions.

After wasting hours, they got the answer: Shaktidevi’s name was inadvertently included in the list of fuel stations that were supposed to provide oil to two-wheelers on Thursday. Commerce Ministry representative Amit Dhungana conceded that people had to suffer because of a mistake in the notice. Contrary to what appeared in the notice, Shaktidevi was not supposed to distribute oil to two-wheelers.