A committee has recommended that members of Parliament should not be allotted dealership of petroleum products.

The committee, appointed by the Supreme Court by a December 12, 2002, order, also said that MPs wanting to take up dealership should resign.

The two-judge committee, which advised the cancellation of 296 petrol pump allotments of the 409 it scrutinised, in its report said MPs had to attend Parliament and meetings of parliamentary committees, entailing long absence from their retail outlets.

"They cannot thus run the dealership/distributorship themselves, but have to engage employees to supervise work. They, therefore, do not fulfil the necessary condition of 'Full Time Working Dealer'," the report said.

The recommendations were quoted in the affidavit filed by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas while responding to an SC query about what would be the supply position of petrol, diesel and cooking gas in areas where the 296 allotments termed illegal by the committee have been made, in case the court decided to cancel them.

The ministry, responding to the court query, said of the 296 allotments not approved of by committee, only 201 dealerships have been commissioned and 95 are yet to be commissioned.