IMPHAL, August 20: With the news started making round that the economic blockade has been NH-2 following the ethnic clash in Assam-Nagaland border, oil pumps in the state are seen with long queues of panic buyers while some oil pumps are found closed despite abundant stocks of petrol, diesel, and SK oil in Imphal IOC depot.
Leaving their day’s work, Panic stricken people of the state began lining up at petrol pumps to get some liters of petrol from Tuesday morning following the news report that about 1000 Imphal bound loaded trucks including oil tankers have been stranded at Assam due to the economic blockade arising out of the ethnic clash over border issue. Petrol pumps witnessed short queues of panic buyers in the morning which was eventually lengthen growing longer and longer afterwards.
It is a fact that Manipur is used to suffer the impacts of economic blockade on earlier occasions. During the months long economic blockade spearheaded by All Naga Students Association Manipur, ANSAM and Sadar hills district demand committee some years back, the state faced severely shortage of essential commodities, petrol and diesel oil with making people of the state to line up at oil outlets for months.
Despite an official of Consumer Affairs, Food and public distribution department clarified that the closure of petrol pumps in the state is not due to scarcity of petrol in the wake of border clash in Assam and Nagaland and that the Chingmeirong oil depot of IOC has abundant stock of petrol that sufficiently last for 20 days, diesel for 25 days, the reason behind why almost petrol pumps are found closed is unknown.
It is an usual happening in Manipur that many oil outlets are found closed and many panic buyers line up at petrol outlets even before the blockade actually begins. Some black marketers in the state are making good profit in the name of economic blockade. Such vested interest group of black marketers seem to be happy when a news of economic blockade starts making around, said a customer who was waiting for his turn to take petrol from the oil outlet at Imphal.
