All the filter paper test -- recommended as a good way to separate adulterants from petrol and diesel -- can do is detect the presence of kerosene in petrol. However, solvents, which are the hottest adulterants going, remain undetected.

Logistically too, the plans have failed by depending on vehicle-owners to voluntarily ask for adulteration tests. Coming on the heels of the department's sporadic raids on small-time solvent manufacturers -- something that those in the trade admit are no deterrent at all -- the drive exposes the sheer lack of ideas in the Civil Supplies department.

Launched with much fanfare last fortnight by Civil Supplies Minister Ashok Bhatt in Ahmedabad and Labour Minister Bhupendra Lakhawala in Vadodara, the drive has seen only a few vehicle-owners seeking fuel adulteration tests. Office-bearers of the Gujarat Federation of Petroleum Dealers' Association confirm that this is the scene in Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat.

They are also sceptical about the effectiveness of the filter-paper test on fuel adulterated with organic composite solvent (OCS), hegzin, naphtha, C-7 and C-9, whose density matches that of petrol and which evaporate within three minutes.

Solvent, which costs around Rs 8/litre, provides filling stations an easy way to make an extra buck. All solvents gel with petrol in a 50:50 ratio and sells for Rs 30/litre, allowing the petrol pump to rake in at least Rs 20 in unadulterated profit. On an average, a pump -- there are 1,400 in the State -- sells about 10,000 litres of petrol a day.

Manufacturers send the solvents to petrol pumps, which are disguised as fake companies in their books; the modus operandi was discovered during civil supplies raids. At least four petrol-pumps in Vadodara district were found to possess huge quantities of solvent, while three chemical units were booked for not maintaining proper track of their solvent production, stocks and sale.

That fuel adulteration is rampant is confirmed by all, from the minister to the office-bearers of petrol pump associations.

Vadodara DSO D G Khachar, however, says the civil supplies department is trying to best to check fuel adulteration. On the filter test, he says though the octane test is better in detecting adulterants, it was not feasible for the layman to carry it out. ``But the filter test does create awareness among people'', he insists.

Bhatt, meanwhile, says the State has plans to set up an octane rating equipment as well as a full-fledged laboratory for DSOs, which should help them check adulteration promptly and with efficiency.

In the meantime, fuel continues to be adulterated. The profits, after all, are not.