The concerns were raised during its meeting which was attended by over 70 retailers from Mormugao besides other retailers from across Goa.
According to the MKRA, there are about 110 kerosene retailers in Mormugao taluka while there are about 1500 similar retailers across Goa and majority of them have been earning their living from kerosene retail shop. They said that in June this year, the officials of Civil Supplies department suddenly stopped their kerosene quota without giving any intimation to the retailers leaving them to face undue hardships.
“We failed to understand as to on what basis the Civil Supplies department suddenly stopped the kerosene quota without any intimation to us. After the issue came to light, our members approached the Civil Supplies Minister Dayanand Mandrekar and submitted a memorandum on behalf of retailers requesting him to resolve the issue. However, Mandrekar refused to entertain our plea, which makes us feel that something is fishy,” said Vishnudas Kholkar, a kerosene retailer from Curtorim.
Similarly, Vasco-based retailer Nandadeep Raut who is a MMC Councillor claimed that “Since our kerosene quota has been stopped; people have been repeatedly asking us as to when we would provide them their quota, but we are not in a position to answer them. Now, Ganesh Chaturthi is fast approaching but people are not getting kerosene. It is learnt that only few retailers (3 each) from different constituencies have been given kerosene quota, including our quota, thereby depriving us of our rights and in future we will approach court to seek justice,” he informed.
The MKRA members claimed that they have already filled the forms of consumers availing kerosene quota but after completing the formalities, now if the Civil Supplies department suddenly stopped their quota then it would be double hardships for retailers as well as for consumers.
They demanded that the state government should resolve this issue.
, as majority of the kerosene quota beneficiaries are poor.
