The ongoing protests by truck drivers at many places in Maharashtra and Punjab against the new hit-and-run provision have triggered panic buying among two-wheelers and four-wheelers riders, prompting long queues outside petrol pumps. Long queues were seen outside petrol pumps in Nagpur, Thane, Jalgaon, and Dhulia in Maharashtra as people waited for their turns to fill the tankers of their vehicles, visuals showed.
Local police rushed to the sites and cleared the blockades in Nagpur, videos showed.
Visuals showed people waiting outside petrol pumps in Punjab's Amritsar and Patiala as truckers held protests against the provision in the new penal law on hit-and-run law.
Some petrol pumps in Nagpur district have already run out of stock with the managers at the pump saying that if the situation remains unchanged, they may have to put up a "No Petrol" display board. In Nashik, tanker drivers stopped work and parked more than 1,000 vehicles in Panewadi village, home to fuel depots, on Monday.
The shortage of fuel has prompted the closure of three petrol pumps in Thane.
Nashik District Petrol Dealers Association has warned that if the agitation is not called off then many fuel stations in Nashik district will run dry, reported news agency PTI.
"Petrol was supplied to 150 petrol pumps in Mumbai last night. However, due to panic buying people are buying more petrol than what is required, making it difficult to maintain the stock of petrol. It will be difficult if there is no supply of petrol in the coming days," Keyur Parikh, Mumbai's Petrol Pump Association dealer said.
Meanwhile, an association of petrol pump dealers in the Marathwada region said fuel pumps in the district may go dry by Tuesday if the situation does not normalise, PTI reported.
In Thane, drivers blocked traffic on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway on Monday and threw stones at the police personnel, injuring a cop.
Similar scenes were witnessed in Navi Mumbai yesterday when a policeman was injured as a group of truckers attacked him, prompting police to use force to disperse the mob, police told PTI.
A video of the incident shows a group of men, armed with sticks, attacking the policeman and chasing him away. Similar agitations were also held on the Uran-Nhava Sheva Road in Raigad district on the border of Mumbai.
Punjab Petrol Pumps Face Fuel Shortage
Not only in Maharashtra, petrol pumps across several places in Punjab saw long queues. Almost all petrol pumps in Amritsar have run out of fuel amid panic buying as the truck drivers continued their strikes for the second day in a row.
Locals are of the view that the government and truck association should find a solution to the issue.
Under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), which replaced the colonial era Indian Penal Code, drivers who cause a serious road accident by negligent driving and run away without informing the police or any official from the administration can face punishment of up to 10 years or a fine of Rs 7 lakh.
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