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Pump scam: Govt may spare special categories

The Union Cabinet, which met in New Delhi under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Saturday, deferred the issuance of an ordinance to terminate about 3600 dealerships of pump agencies allotted since January 2000.

"It has been deferred for further discussion. There were queries on allotments made to war widows and other special category persons. We have to decide on them," Petroleum Minister Ram Naik said after the two-hour meeting.

Rattled by a flurry of stay orders by various courts across the country, the petroleum ministry had moved a proposal for a presidential decree to give 'statutory teeth' to the executive order cancelling allotments in 'public interest'.

This 'statutory action', if approved, will help the ministry to defend the executive order, particularly after the August 20 observation of the Allahabad high court that the government should have conducted an impartial probe before cancelling the allotments.

Of the 3,565 allotments to be cancelled, about 2,131 pumps and agencies are commissioned allotments and cancelling them would lead to tough legal scrutiny, ministry officials said.

The ministry wanted an ordinance in place before its petition for clubbing all cases arising out of the order came up for hearing at the Supreme Court on August 26.

The officials said that if the SC allowed the petition, then the investigation would take place from 1983 and not from January 2000.

The government has already asked the state-run oil companies to compile the list of allotments made by successive governments since 1983, when the dealer selection boards were constituted, they added.

The ordinance was also to detail a scheme of compensation to dealers who had invested in land and other infrastructure after their pumps and agencies were taken over by oil companies.

PTI

The Petrol Pump Scam: Complete Coverage

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