Lahore: Action against illegal petrol pumps likely?

[Naveed Yaseen]

* At least 46 petrol pumps operating in city in violation of rules

By Rana Kashif

LAHORE: The City District Government Lahore (CDGL) has planned a crackdown on illegal petrol pumps in the city, Daily Times learnt on Tuesday.

Sources in the CDGL said the authorities concerned would be launching the operation immediately after Eid, as all CDGL officials were currently busy in ensuring the provision of subsidised essentials in Ramzan Bazaars. They said the authorities would highlight such petrol pumps whose distribution had been cancelled, but they were still selling the fuel obtained from other sources.

District Civil Defence Officer Mazhar Ahmed confirmed that he would meet the authorities of petrol companies to find out about the fuel stations whose supplies had been cancelled. He said there would surely be some fuel stations in the city that would be selling fuel despite cancellation of their distribution licences. When asked how many petrol pumps were operating in violation of the rules, he said it would be better to contact the district officer (DO) (commercialisation). The DO (commercialisation) said they had a plan to deal with such fuel stations that were operating in violation of the rules. He confirmed that the operation would be launched after Eid.

Petrol pumps: There are at least 46 petrol pumps operating in the city despite the expiry of their lease periods and the government issued licences, the sources said. The sources said a majority of such fuel stations were operating on Canal Road, Empress Road, Garhi Shahu, Circular Road, McLeod Road, Shalimar, Mori Gate, Sheranwala and Shahdara, adding that influential people owned those pumps.

They said the owners of those pumps were allotted lands on lease for a period of one to 30 years, but they were operating the pumps despite their lease period had ended. A former Lahore Civil Defence officer said under the rules, the lease period automatically expired after the death of the lessee, but a majority of the pumps were being run even after the death of the lessees. He said some of the pump owners had been paying Rs 500 to Rs 700 as rent to the government in the past, but this practice was curtailed after 2004. While in one case, the leased land was sold, he added. The rent of leased lands had reached Rs 30,000 to Rs 0.1 million a month, but the CDGL was bearing a loss of thousands of rupees in this respect.

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