Kathmandu, October 2
Technicians of Nepal Oli Corporation’s Thankot depot on Monday found that over 600 litres of turpentine were mixed with 20,000 litres of petrol carried to Kathmandu from Barauni of India.
The driver of the tanker (Na 4 Kha 3085), Sachin Subedi, was found to have replaced 600 litres of petrol by the equal amount of turpentine on his way. This act put the government-owned fuel distribution monopoly in a loss of Rs 64,200.
Then, Subedi was handed over to police for further action on the black-marketing charge.
This is just a representative case as the corporation has reported several similar incidents in recent months. Claiming drivers illegally open the tanker before coming to India and steal the fuel or adulterate it, officials say a new technology, however, is helping them detect such acts.
The corporation’s Executive Director Surendra Kumar Paudel says the new technology has been used to upgrade the existing digital locking system and a lab, but it has also helped them detect adulteration.
Meanwhile, Nepal Petroleum Dealers’ Association has claimed the locking system deployed by the corporation is not effective enough against adulteration. The association’s president Lilendra Prasad Pradhan also claims some staff of the corporation might have been involved in irregularities in cahoots with the tanker drivers.
