Several petrol pumps in Dehradun are short of basic facilities that the customers are entitled to. Things are more worse so in those that are located on the outskirts.
Aside from the absence of the toilet, drinking water and other facilities, there is no air pressure gauge and pumps. At some places, such instruments were found non- functional.
In most of the places, they were found okay but the customers are turned away as the pumps have no employee to fill the wheels of the vehicles with air.
However, there are means to redress things. In case one finds that the pump he visits is bereft of the basic facilities he may call on toll free number- 1800-233-3555 to register his complaint. Stating this, senior IOC officer, Sarvesh Kumar Sinha said the pumps are bound to put these facilities in place.
There are around 243 petrol pumps affiliated to IOC in the State. Dehradun district has around 18 such pumps. The petrol officials are deployed at petrol pumps to check whether they are equipped with the mandatory equipments that include the crucial fire safety equipments.
The petrol pump owners are given warning if such services are not found in place. Besides, they are slapped with penalty of `5,000 in case the warnings are not heeded and corrective measures are not taken.
Sinha claimed that things are rare when such penalties are slapped on the errant pump owners. "As per our information, almost at all the petrol pumps are endowed with the basic services the customers are entitled to. The field officers are deployed periodically to check things," he said, adding that all the petrol pump owners have been directed to install boards mentioning the direction concerning toilet, drinking water and other facilities.
However, when this correspondent visited various petrol pumps in the city he found no such board in any of them. At some places, toilet is located at the farthest corner or in the office of petrol pump owner, invisible for the customers. When quizzed, the employees said toilet and drinking water are available for customers on their asking.
Ramesh Uniyal, resident of Karanpur, said that the services at petrol pumps in Dehradun are very poor. "They do not provide even air. At some places, the instruments are either unavailable or non-functional. At others, they have no employee to fill our vehicles with the air," he said.
He further said that IOC officials should take serious initiatives to see to it that the pumps are endowed with these basic facilities. "In case we find such services right in place it would shore up the pumps' sale turnovers," he added.
Things are so bad that the people are forced to approach the roadside bike/cycle repairing shops to have the wheels of the vehicles air-filled for money.
"But the problem is that they do not check the air pressure with gauge, something that affects the vehicles in many ways," said Vinit Bisht, resident of Kewal Vihar.