CURATED BY – UMESH KUSHWAHA | CITYCHIEFNEWS

Satna, petrol and diesel which are highly inflammable substances are being sold openly in the Kothi town and rural areas at the roadside grocery or tea and snack shops. Petrol is also being brought openly in cans and bottles from Pidra petrol pump of Uttar Pradesh through Majhguwa and Kothi police station area. Despite the ban, the rules are not being followed. Some people are messing with the engines of vehicles in huts and tin sheds for the greed of money. This trend has been going on continuously, due to no action being taken for a long time against selling petrol or diesel openly, the number of people filling petrol in plastic cans at short distances in the area and selling it at higher prices is also increasing. These people are selling petrol on the roadside in rural areas. The responsible people seem to turn a blind eye to this. People say that the administration should put a stop to the sale of illegal petrol and diesel.

The administration is aware, but still no action is taken.

The administration is aware of the shops running in the form of illegal petrol pumps in most of the villages and roadsides of Kothi area. Illegal petrol and diesel is being sold at roadside shops in almost every village in Kothi bus stand, Jhali Chauraha, Sonaur, old petrol pump, Bagiya Mod, Goraiya Mod, Jhali bus stand, Mauhar bus stand, Naina Mod. Administrative officers also come and go through these routes. When some vehicle owners and mechanics were talked to to confirm this, they said that the fuel of many bikes and four wheelers has run out. Illegal storage is being done at half a hundred places. In the rural areas of Kothi, at hundreds of places, illegal petrol sellers are selling red and blue colored liquid in plastic cans. This is the same petrol and diesel which is easily available in less than a liter quantity at a price 10 to 20 rupees higher than the petrol pump. Keeping stock of flammable material is illegal, but they are neither afraid of administrative action nor of any accident.

Accidents have happened before as well

If sources are to be believed, in the last 10 years, due to short circuit in the area including Kothi, petrol stored illegally inside about half a dozen shops has caught fire, in a few seconds the entire shop was burnt to ashes.