CPI(M) demands release of kerosene oil supply to dealers in

CPI(M) today urged the Jammu and Kashmir government to release the kerosene oil quota to the licence holders of Samba district.
The decision of the Deputy Commissioner Samba to stop the kerosene oil quota to the licence holders of the district is not only arbitrary but also against the interests of the dealers and consumers, senior CPI(M) leader and MLA Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami said.
"The 114 kerosene oil dealers, who have been engaged in this business since 1983 and have been earning their livelihood by running their small units, have been rendered jobless and their families left to fend from nowhere," he said.

Tarigami claimed that the Deputy Commissioner, who had stopped the kerosene oil quota to the dealers in July last year, has not given any substantial reason for the same.
At a time when the state is facing a huge problem of unemployment, the order of the Deputy Commissioner is against sagacity as it will add more people to the long list of the unemployed, he said.
The kerosene dealers in other districts of the state are doing their businesses normally and it is only the Samba district where the district magistrate has passed an order and stopped the supply which is still one of the basic commodities for a common consumer, the CPI(M) leader said.

"Needless to say that in the absence of regular power supply in villages, kerosene oil is still being used for lighting the homes," he said.
Keeping the demand of the dealers as well as that of the consumers in view, the government should look into the matter at the earliest and release the kerosene oil quota to the dealers of the district, Tarigami added.