Farmers, commuters suffer shortage of diesel

Khammam: The shortage of diesel in erstwhile Khammam district has been troubling the farmers and commuters alike for the past few days.

The problem aggravated during the past couple of days as the filling stations at Kothagudem, Yellandu and Sujatha Nagar in Kothagudem district and at Wyra in Khammam were not dispensing diesel.

The problem was particularly severe at Sujatha Nagar and Wyra where long queues of farmers were seen to purchase diesel as the vanakalam agriculture season commenced with the arrival of monsoon. With the arrival of monsoon, the farmers started preparing the lands for cultivation of crops and they need diesel to run tractors and other farm equipment.

But the filling station proprietors were not selling the fuel citing various reasons, complained a group of farmer of Sujatha Nagar. The owners and drivers of cars and buses, especially the school buses, were equally troubled with the shortage of diesel.

The filling station proprietors on the other hand, stated that they have nothing to do with the crisis as the petroleum companies have recently introduced a coupon system to ration diesel in view of increased prices of diesel.