Authorities Wake Up After Immolation Attempt

It is said that desperate times call for desperate measures and that’s what it took for the authorities to wake up after a 25-year-old woman tried to immolate herself in front of Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora's press conference.

 
Within 48 hours after the foiled immolation attempt state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) allotted the petrol pump back to her.

IOC had terminated the license after inspections at the petrol pump and allegedly found that the fuel being sold from the gas station was adulterated.

The woman was nursing a grouse against the authorities for having terminated the license of the petrol pump outlet sanctioned to her father who had lost his son Harinder Singh during the Kargil war.

The woman along with her mother had met the Oil Minister several times in the past and alleged that the IOC was coercing her to appoint one H P Singh as the manager of the retail outlet as a condition to commissioning it.

She also alleged that H P Singh was acting as a conduit between local oil company officials in running the benami operation of several dealers of defence category and in adulteration of fuel.

After the failed immolation bid Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora had said that he would seek a thorough CBI inquiry into the incident.