A new automobile owner from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, was left startled after attendants at a local petrol pump charged him for filling as much as 52 litres of fuel in a vehicle with a maximum tank capacity of just 45 litres. The automobile owner brought the situation to the notice of the authorities and the district administration stepped in and requested an immediate probe of the dispensing units of the station.
Charan Singh, the owner of the vehicle, had bought a brand new Volkswagen Virtus and stopped at the petrol station with the fuel indication pointing to a near-empty tank. Singh asked the pump attendants to fill the vehicle and the tank to its utmost capacity.
The attendants first pumped in about 41 liters of petrol, Singh said. He asked why they had stopped and the attendants allegedly told him that big volumes had to be filled in two instalments. Then they filled the tank.
Singh’s confusion regarding the stop in filling soon turned to amazement when he was presented a bill that mentioned a total quantity of 52 liters of petrol.
Singh challenged the pump workers immediately, saying that the reading was physically impossible. He said the tank could not contain that volume.
Suspecting an organised racket, Singh called a representative of the car manufacturing firm, right to the location. A corporate official came and formally stated that the tank on the vehicle could not, under any circumstances, contain more than 45 litres.
The petrol pump management could only come up with hazy justifications when faced with the technological proof. Singh has now filed a formal complaint, alleging a systemic racket of fraud being run with the connivance of local weights and measures officers. The district administration has begun an inquiry to check rigging of dispensing equipment.
