Prayagraj: Despite the Centre assuring that fuel supply across the country remains stable and retail fuel outlets are operating normally amid the ongoing developments in West Asia, petrol pumps across the city witnessed panic buying on Thursday as rumours of fuel shortage spread.People made a beeline for fuel stations in the trans-Ganga and trans-Yamuna pockets of the district, leading to serpentine queues since early morning. In many places, people had to wait for hours to fill their fuel tanks. Authorities of some petrol pumps had to call cops after some customers created noisy scenes.According to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, “All retail outlets are operating normally across the country. There are adequate stocks of petrol and diesel available at all petrol pumps.” Fuel dealers, however, claimed that bikers are increasingly opting to fill their tanks, causing a sharp spike in demand and faster stock depletion. Petrol pump owners claimed that panic buying has increased customer volume.The local administration has also urged citizens not to believe rumours and resort to panic buying. Manager of a fuel pump said, “Petrol pumps with an average storage capacity of around 5,000 litres, which typically lasted three to four days, are now running dry sooner than in the past two days due to rumours, despite district officials clarifying there is no dearth of petrol and diesel.” He said the majority of the fuel pumps have sufficient fuel reserve to meet demand for the next month, well above normal levels.
