Petroleum dealers to go on indefinite strike in Tripura

Agartala, July 4 (UNI) The Tripura Petroleum Dealers and LPG Distributors Association have threatened to launch an indefinite strike from July 8 to protest the Indian Oil Corporation(IOC)'s order to close down two petrol outlets in Tripura.

TPD general secretary Timirendu Bhowmik said all retail outlets in the state will remain closed from Saturday unless the ICO revoked its order.

The two pumps- Sarala Depot in Chandrapur and Purna Petroleum Agency in Bisramganja- were closed down after an anti-adulteration team from IOC visited the state and cancelled their licenses.

Association president Biplab Kumar Roy has blamed the transporters for adulteration of fuel brought from Dharmanagar depot in those two pumps and questioned IOC's RON testing, saying that this system cannot come to the conclusion that the petrol was bad.

The association members said that it was a conspiracy of the IOC to close down the Dharmanagar depot, ''It is nothing but a conspiracy by the IOC. They want to close down the Dharmanagar depot in the same manner as they had done in the case of the Abhoynagar Depot,'' said an agitated Roy. He also threatened that the IOC and the state government will be blamed for the common man's suffering if their demands were not fulfilled.

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