The burning alive of Nashik’s additional collector at Manmad in Maharashtra on the eve of this year’s Republic Day by an oil mafia gang he had caught redhanded should not really come as any surprise. It was almost déjà vu: the murder of yet another upright public servant doing his duty, reminding the nation of the horrific circumstances in which Satyendra Dubey of the National Highways Authority of India was killed for exposing misdeeds relating to the Golden Quadrilateral project in Bihar seven years ago, in November 2003, as well as another oil mafia-related killing — that of Shanmugham Manjunath of the Indian Oil Corporation just two years after that, in November 2005, in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri region. Maharashtra too has seen some similar incidents — such as the death in mysterious circumstances of a DIG of the CBI who had taken on the oil mafia. More recently, a top oil mafia gang leader operating in Mumbai Port — suspected of smuggling `25 lakhs of diesel every day — was killed in broad daylight just outside the GPO in the heart of the nation’s financial capital. A senior Maharashtra police officer who has taken on the oil mafia claims that it is far more powerful and ruthless than even the dons who rule the underworld, and that its tentacles spread throughout the length and breadth of the country.
Many lives have been lost along the way, and the mafia’s modus operandi is well known to governments at the Centre and in the states — such a widespread operation simply cannot continue without connivance at all levels: the politicians who are beholden to the mafia, bureaucrats and the oil companies. In Maharashtra itself, many people have written detailed letters to the government on the mafia’s activities, but they did not get even an acknowledgement. There are big names involved, and it is estimated between 50-60 per cent of kerosene meant for the public distribution system is diverted by the mafia with official connivance. This makes a mockery of the susbsidy of kerosene and diesel — are these only meant to subsidise the mafia? Kerosene and LPG together account for two-thirds of the total oil subsidy of `50,000 crores — which is nearly 4.5 per cent of the Union Budget! The new petroleum minister has declared that this subsidy will not be stopped so that the poor are not hit. Which poor exactly is he talking about? He would do well to study other options which have been suggested to the government on ways to protect the poor and also put an end to this astronomical leakage. One of these is a proposal to pay the difference between the market price and the subsidised price to each identified beneficiary family, perhaps through a special post office bank account, after which kerosene could be sold openly in the market at its real price and the leakage of kerosene intended for PDS stopped.
It is ironical that the oil companies will pay compensation of `25 lakhs to the additional collector’s family. Oil mafia operations start from the doors of the oil marketing companies, primarily in Mumbai which is the hub as the bulk of petroleum imports is routed through Mumbai Port and then distributed across the country. The mafia’s modus operandi is no secret to the authorities: major transport companies with thousands of tankers take the kerosene and diesel and have full fledged factories along the route where the “mixing” or adulteration is done. There are also gangs which specialise in puncturing oil pipelines. The government talks of using GPS to track tankers, which is a good idea, but it must also ensure that the oil marketing companies get extremely tough with the vendors they choose as distributors.