IOC petrol pump shares wall with kids living next door

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 22

Do you want to open a petrol pump adjacent to a school or a hospital or in a highly congested residential area? No problem. In Jalandhar, you can twist the provisions of Petroleum Rules 1976 and the development order by the Punjab Town and Country Planning Authority and can open a filling station at any place of your choice.

While some filling stations have recently come up next to schools and houses, some hotels and schools were also granted no objection certificate (NOC) and opened adjacent to a filling station opened many years ago.

Take example of a filling station situated near Kapurthala Chowk. Even though the Mumbai High Court, in a judgment in writ petition NO. 4734 of 2004 of St Philomena Convent High School vs Union of India case, clearly stated that the filling stations should be opened at a minimum distance of over 91.5 metres from a school and hospital, the aforesaid filling station is situated just 20 m from a critical heart care hospital.

“A petrol station shall not be situated within a distance of 91.5 m from the nearest gate of a school, hospital, theatre, place of assembly or stadium or such other place of public utility,” stated the court in its order dated March 31, 2009.

Shockingly, despite being aware about the norms, the applicant had managed to move across over dozen departments with the subject that the applicant had intended to set up a filling station “near Tagore Hospital”. More shockingly, the NOCs of all departments, including an NOC by the District Collector, too went on acknowledging the fact that the site was indeed situated next to a hospital.

Also, while the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Industry and Civil Supplies (Dept of Industrial Development) clearly stated that the petrol pumps should not be established next to residential houses, this filling station shares a wall with a residential house having two kids aged three and four.

While the filling station was situated in plot No. 86, a family is staying in a house constructed in plot No. 87.

Ashwini Mahajan, a sports goods merchant living ‘next door’ the filling station, alleged that even though there were four filling stations running in the area, the district administration had defied the mandated rules and granted permission to open the pump in the heart of the residential area.

Tribune investigations further revealed that the owner allegedly got a letter from the area councillor who stated that there were no filling stations in the area and there was a dire need to open one. The administration hurriedly accepted his claim and granted permission to open one. Interestingly, the letters (copies available with The Tribune) issued by the area councillor Gurvinder Bunty Neelkanth and nearby area councillor Kanwaljeet Singh Gullu did not even bear date and the letter number.

On further probe by The Tribune, it was found that the Town and Country Planning Department did not issue the NOC earlier by stating that the junction on which the petrol pump was located on a 23-6” road and is a minor junction (above 22 feet wide).

However, it seemed that the “demand” stated by the area councillor turned the tables and the department finally “bypassed” the rule.

Shockingly, when contacted by The Tribune, former area councillor Bunty of ward number 24 claimed that he did not remember issuing any such letter to the filling station owners.

However, when contacted, Gullu slammed the officials for “ignoring” the rules of the Petroleum Act and the directions of the High Court over a letter issued by the councillors. “It is our duty to inform the officials about the needs of our area residents. However, it does not entitle them to overlook the norms prescribed in the Petroleum Act. They should have granted permission as per the law,” said Gullu.

More seriously, while a petrol pump should be opened around 50 feet away from a road intersection having a minimum width of 22 feet, the Explosives Department too overlooked the fact in this case and granted permission to open one, right on the road intersection.

While the district administration officials claimed in an RTI reply that one of the roads in the cross section was not thoroughfare, as claimed by the Police Department after an on-the-spot inspection, an RTI reply sought by Mahajan from the Police Commissionerate was refused by stating that he could not be provided information as per notification 2/27/05-IAR/191 dated 23rd February 2006 which stated that the RTI Act 2005 would not apply to certain organisations under the Department of Home Affairs and Justice and DGP Punjab CHD no. 21190-289/Con-EO, dated 16-05-2006.

Sources in the Civil Supplies Department even made serious allegations. Some alleged that a majority of the filing stations in the city had made different site plans as per the specifications required by a respective department.

To open a petrol pump, one needs NOC from around eight departments. Due to highly stringent rules, it is too difficult to adhere to specifications of all departments. As the respective departments only issue NOC and not the sanctioned site plan to the district collectors’ office, the oil companies allegedly get a chance to fudge around with the site plans to meet the specifications of a respective department.

In case of filling station situated near the Kapurthala chowk, it was granted permission to operate on the cross section situated in the congested residential area and just adjacent to a critical heart care hospital.

When contacted, one of the pump owners Rajeev Murria ‘Vicky’ instead of accepting the lapses, argued that when a majority of the pumps were situated adjacent to high-rise hotels, why can’t he be allowed to operate one in a residential area?

While the pump owner might have got away by twisting some facts in the record files, the next door residents here like Mahajan’s family, including his three-year-old daughter and her four-year-old cousin are breathing toxic emissions everyday.

A study carried out in France looked at 280 children with leukemia and a control group of 285 children, all younger than 15 years. The researchers found that children living next door to a petrol station or automotive garage had a quadrupled risk of leukemia. And the risk of developing acute non-lymphoblastic leukemia was seven times greater compared to children who lived in the same area, but not next to a petrol station. Also, fast-moving oil tankers and buses entering the filling station might take precious lives some day in future.