Merely two years into operation, the fuel station at Sergithang Gewog in Tsirang is mostly ineffective. Due to this, farmers there, who do farming round the year, are not able to make good use of the agriculture machinery such as power tillers.
The fuel station, which is located some three kilometres away from the Sergithang Gewog office often remains shut. As a result, farmers are affected the most.
Their farm mechanised tools, which otherwise have to be engaged in fields throughout the year, lie idle without fuel.
They also complain about the irregular supply of LPG cylinders. And travelling to the fuel depot in Damphu Town, which is 45 kilometres, only adds to their woes.
“We had to halt our farm works last time without fuel supply for our power tiller. We couldn’t go to Damphu due to the lockdown. We would be grateful if our fuel station here could supply uninterrupted fuel,” says one of the farmers, Yadab Sanyasi.
His predicament was echoed by some other farmers.
“We have to often borrow fuel from our neighbours to do farming. If we miss a day on a farm, it’s like as same as civil servants not getting their pay by the end of the month,” Rudra Lal Sanyasi says. “Getting fuel from Damphu is costly and time-consuming,” he adds.
Apart from the farming communities, business people and public servants in the gewog are unhappy about the almost defunct fuel station.
“Continuous fuel supply from the fuel station can help us generate income by transporting people and goods within the gewog. But we have to travel to Damphu just to refuel our cars. If the operator is facing difficulty, some abled ones can take over the business,” shares one of the utility vehicle drivers, Mani Kumar Rai.
The fuel station operator points out that the lack of adequate fuel supply occurs due to limited stock at the Druk Petroleum Corporation’s fuel depot in Damphu.
“The fuel station here on average needs 500 litres daily. But we get only 260-300 litres of fuel from the depot in Damphu at a time. This is not even enough to refuel excavators in the gewog used for agriculture land development projects. That is why we face fuel crunch,” says Tek Bdr. Rai, the operator of Takala Petroleum Oil and LPG Agent in Sergithang Gewog.
However, the Druk Petroleum Corporation in Damphu maintains that it has been selling fuel to its agents without any ceilings.
They say the supply had been scarce only in rare cases when stock arrival from the source was delayed. Anyways, people of Sergithang Gewog are hoping for the gewog officials to look into the matter soon.
Pema Tshewang, Tsirang
Edited by Pema Lhaden
