Petrol continues to be sold in bottles

Hyderabad: In the absence of strict enforcement of rules that were mandated after the gruesome 2019 Disha case, petrol continues to be sold in plastic bottles. Despite government directions to the contrary, petrol bunks oblige customers bringing plastic bottles for fuel. 

There have been many brutal instances where petrol in plastic bottles was used after the Disha gang-rape and murder on November 27, 2019. A mandal revenue officer was burnt alive in her office in Abdullapurmet in 2019; a techie was burnt alive by his relatives in the city outskirts in 2020; a similar murder was reported in Sangareddy last month while in the latest such crime pertaining to Narayana Junior College, students are suspected to have brought petrol in a plastic bottle into the college premises. 

After the Disha case, police instructed petrol pump managements not to supply fuel in plastic bottles. Almost all bunks displayed boards mentioning the change.

However, barely two to three months later, petrol stations began filling bottles. Ironically, the police have never cross-checked.