Kannur: The late Kannur Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Naveen Babu K was an honest official, but he was pulled into a corruption controversy because granting non-objection certificates (NoCs) to petrol pumps had become a lucrative source of income for ADMs across Kerala, said the All Kerala Federation of Petroleum Traders (AKFPT).
In a petition to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the federation said that it had repeatedly brought to his attention the widespread corruption and demands for bribes after the power to issue NoCs for petrol pumps was vested in ADMs under the single-window system.
The federation demanded an inquiry by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) or any trustworthy agency into all the NoCs issued to fuel stations in Kerala since 2016.
From 2016 -- the year Vijayan started heading the government -- to 2024, around 700 fuel stations were issued NoCs in Kerala, the federation said. Another 400 fuel stations are in the pipeline as they have received NoCs but the construction work has not started or their applications for NoCs are pending before the ADMs, the federation said.
"Approvals for these pumps were given by throwing pollution, road and safety rules and guidelines to the wind," said president of AKFPT Tomy Thomas, who owns Thomson Fuels at Alappuzha's Thuravoor. "I know a new fuel station in Kottayam which paid Rs 10 lakh bribe to get the NoC," he said.
Corruption in granting NoC to fuel station became a talking point after Kannur District Panchayat President PP Divya accused Naveen Babu of sitting on an application for an NoC for six months and granting it just days before he was transferred to his home district of Pathanamthitta.
Divya then added that she knew how the NoC was granted, hinting that he accepted a bribe to do his job. She made the allegation by gatecrashing into Naveen Babu's farewell meeting on October 14. Naveen Babu was found dead in his quarters on October 15, the day he was to reach home in Pathanamthitta.
His death triggered widespread protests demanding action against Divya. But Prashanthan TV — who sought the NoC for his fuel station coming up at Niduvaloor in Chengalayi grama panchayat — backed Divya, saying he paid Rs 98,500 to Naveen Babu on October 6 and got the NoC on October 8.
Prashanthan, however, did not produce any evidence. The Chief Minister's Office and the VACB denied receiving Prashanthan's complaint against Naveen Babu, which he claimed to have sent via WhatsApp to the Chief Minister on October 10.
All Kerala Federation of Petroleum Traders (AKFPT) said "it has learned that Naveen Babu was an honest official". But did not vouch for the LDF government and its bureaucracy.
The fuel station owners said they are being squeezed by the state government's corruption and the Union government's overdrive to increase fuel sales. The Union government is relaxing rules for fuel stations and oil producer companies are aggressively expanding their footprints, AKFPT said. "They are also to be blamed for the present situation," said AKFPT President Thomas.
According to the Indian Road Congress (IRC), the distance between two highway fuel stations should be 300 m. The distance can be dispensed with the approach through a 7 m-wide service road. But AKFPT said fuel stations need to sell at least 170 kilolitres of fuel (petrol plus diesel) every month to be profitable, which is around 5,600 litres daily. "But new fuel stations are coming up near pumps selling 50 kilolitres per month," said Thomas.
Earlier, the minimum distance between a fuel station and residential areas, schools and hospitals with 10 beds should be 50 m. "Now many pumps are coming up at a distance of 30 m," he said. He said The government has also reduced the distance between a fuel station and an intersection or median gap in an urban area to 100 m from 300 m.
He said rules are being relaxed because oil producer companies want to push up sales when petroleum fuel consumption is on the decline. "Oil companies want to turn the corner before electric vehicles become the norm on Indian roads. So they are aggressively pushing for new outlets," he said.
However, the new entrants are being pushed into a debt trap. "When we opened our outlets 20 years ago, we invested only around Rs 20,000. A new entrant has to shell out around Rs 1.5 crore to set up the outlet. The land cost comes on top of that," said Thomas. "With falling sales and rising corruption, how would they recoup their money?" he said.
