While industries and the dealers of petroleum products fear that the results may be disastrous if the strike continues, the executives gave no indication of calling it off.

“Out of the 42 petrol pumps in the city, only three are running. People are going to face a tough time if the strike is not called off,” said Amanpreet Singh, general secretary of the Chandigarh Petroleum Dealers’ Association. According to Singh, the total daily fuel supply to all petrol pumps in the city is around 700 kilo litres — 300 kl of diesel and 400 kl of petrol.

In Panchkula and Mohali, where the number of pumps is comparatively less, almost 98 per cent of them were closed after they ran out of stock.

“The strike will not only have an impact on petrol and diesel but also on cooking gas in the days to come,” said a senior marketing official at Indian Oil Corporation Ltd Chandigarh.

The situation is likely to worsen with the tanker operators joining the separate strike called by truckers.

Truckers’ strike on

The fourth day of the indefinite strike called by truckers was marked with unrest in the Transport Area. In an attempt to involve more truckers in the strike, the protestors stopped the trucks that were moving on the Madhya Marg, disrupting traffic for around half an hour. In the Transport Area, trucks were also not allowed to load any material. The situation was brought under control after the police intervened.

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