Tikri fuel stations suffer Rs 6.5-crore loss in a year

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Jhajjar, November 8

The opening of the 5-foot path on the National Highway-9 (Rohtak-Delhi) on the Tikri border has given some relief to pedestrians and those using two-wheelers.

The situation, however, remains depressing for five filling stations located adjacent to the barricading area.

These petrol/diesel/CNG pumps have been lying closed since the beginning of the farmers’ dharna at Tikri on November 26 last year. Now, these pumps have become a resting place for paramilitary personnel, while their owners say they will have to explore other sources of income if the entire highway is not opened soon for four-wheelers which are their main source of revenue.

The Tikri Border Petrol Pump Association claims the five pumps have suffered a revenue loss of over Rs 6.5 crore in the past year, while more than 80 employees working there have lost their livelihood. Similar is the situation with other shops located on the stretch where barricading has been done.

“Though all five petrol pumps are closed, every pump has to bear fixed expenses of over Rs 1 lakh every month, including employees’ salaries, electricity charges and other taxes, without any income. We had submitted a memorandum to the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission to get a monthly bill of Rs 40,000 waived, citing the prevailing situation, but to no avail,” said Anup Gupta, coordinator of the association.

Gupta said their pumps were catering to requirement of petrol, diesel and CNG of a large number of people from Bahadurgarh and surrounding areas of Delhi before the farmers protest. Now these people were compelled to get fuel for their vehicles from distant places. The losses would keep increasing if the highway was not cleared soon. Not only pumps, several other shops located at the barricading point had also been shut, he claimed.

Darshan Singh, manager at New Haryana Service Station, said over 100 employees were working at all these five filling stations before the farmers’ protest.

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