GAS POLITICS

In India, petrol pumps, LPG gas stations and kerosene oil depots are not sold by oil companies on the basis of competitive bidding. Instead, they are allotted by the government in accordance with a complicated bureaucratic procedure. This procedure has been challenged many times in the past because it breeds corruption and enables the high officials to patronise their faithful. Instead of going to deserving unemployed youth, these dealerships are siphoned off by politicians and high-level bureaucrats. Thus, a minister might have a petrol pump in the name of his wife or daughter. The political bosses may decide to reward a faithful servant with a gas dealership and so on. Over a period of time, the procedure of allotment has become so biased that it is impossible for a normal person to get a dealership for his livelihood as a routine without seeking political backing for his application. Instead of creating employment and dispersing wealth across social frontiers, the system is actually concentrating wealth in the hands of the chosen few. The scam also demonstrates how practised our rulers have become in cheating the public. They stay cool, they are confident of getting away with it and they are not sensitive at all to the criticism of others about their misdeeds. The scam also shows how unresponsive we have become to rampant favouritism, nepotism and corruption.

Corruption in the allotment of petrol pumps etc got media attention in 1996 for the first time. Petroleum minister Satish Sharma was caught misusing his discretionary quota for rewarding favourites of the Congress regime. Following this scam, all discretionary quotas were abolished and new guidelines for allotment were framed. Selections of dealers were now to be made by Dealer Selection Boards headed by retired High court judges. The procedure was made to look very fair and just but the politician's sleight of hand ensured that his Will ruled as before. "On paper, the guidelines were meant to provide a ''transparent, uniform and fair'' procedure. In reality, they were virtually the opposite. For, Naik reconstituted all DSBs in such a way that they had no option but to do the bidding of his party-all veiled by the cloak of ''official'' discretion." (Manoj Mitta, Indian express) http://www.indian-express.com/full_story...

"This scam is not about defying or violating regulations. It is about picking up the state's largesse and giving it away to your own, all done in a manner that makes it so pat, so legitimate. This scam is not so much about breaking the law as it is about making the law take your own course." (Shekhar Gupta, Indian Express)

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