As the strike by employees of the state-run oil companies entered the second day, majority of the petrol pumps in the state on Thursday went dry.

While 1,500 petrol pumps in the state were out of stock by Thursday morning, all the 12 Liquid Petroleum Gas filling centres in and around the city were without stock by afternoon.

With the meeting in New Delhi yielding no results, petrol pump owners fear that the situation will worsen once their buffer stocks are exhausted.

The city might come to a grinding halt as vehicles will not be able to refill if the strike continues.

“Some of us had to shut our pumps from today morning as our stocks got depleted. The last supply of fuel came on Wednesday at 6 am, on which we are surviving,” said Tushar Kanti Sen, president of West Bengal Petroleum Dealers Association.

According to Sen, the strike is going have an adverse affect on daily commuters as well as emergency services like fire service and ambulance. Sen claims to have informed Chief Secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti about the condition, which will turn worse if the government does not take immediate steps. “The chief secretary has assured me that he will speak to the home secretary and the chief minister so that the situation is tackled properly,” said Sen.

“We are out of diesel while our petrol stock will only last till tomorrow after which the petrol pump will go completely dry,” said Sailender Singh, a worker at K C Daw Pvt Ltd petrol pump at Babughat.

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