On Monday, truck drivers throughout the state participated in “rasta roko” rallies against the new penal law’s clause concerning hit-and-run incidents involving drivers. In several areas, the demonstrators brought up the possibility of a fuel scarcity.

According to a report by the news agency PTI, an office-bearer of the Petroleum Dealers Association stated that certain gas pumps in the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar area have already ceased to function.

In Nagpur city, long lines have formed at several gas stations. As truck drivers demonstrate against the hit-and-run rule, people swarm petrol outlets to fill up their cars out of fear that there won’t be enough fuel.

According to an official, a police officer was hurt in Navi Mumbai after an early-morning attack by a gang of truckers, which prompted police to use force to scatter the crowd gathering on the Mumbai-Bengaluru Highway.

He claimed that six of the truck drivers who were detained in Navi Mumbai and who were implicated in the policeman’s beating have been identified.

A policeman was hurt when truck drivers in Thane temporarily stopped traffic on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway in the Mira Bhayandar region and threw stones at law enforcement officers. Stones were thrown, damaging a police car.

They staged protests involving road blockades also took place in the districts of Gondia, Kolhapur, Nagpur, and Solapur. The officials stated that the situation in Navi Mumbai and surrounding areas is under control.

Fuel depots are located in Panewadi village in Nashik, where tanker drivers halted working on Monday and parked over a thousand cars, according to PTI reports.

The Nandgaon taluka village of Panewadi is home to fuel depots owned by Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum, Indian Oil, and LPG filling stations. Fuel is transported throughout the state from these depots.

“If the agitation is not called off, many fuel stations in Nashik district will run dry as they are not allowing dealers to fill their tankers. The gates have been closed and not a single tanker was allowed to carry fuel.” stated Bhushan Bhosale, head of the Nashik District Petrol Dealers Association. All tankers were prohibited from transporting fuel, and the gates have been closed.”

Following the Indian Penal Code of the colonial era, drivers who cause a serious road accident through careless driving and flee without reporting the incident to the police or any administrative official face up to 10 years in prison or a fine of ₹7 lakh under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS).

At least 400 people organised a rasta roko seeking the removal of the new penal code provision in the afternoon in the Kalamboli district of Navi Mumbai, according to police, on the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway.

On the Raigad district’s Uran-Nhava Sheva Road, which borders Mumbai, similar protests were also staged.

In the Marathwada region, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar city’s association of petrol pump sellers warned that if things don’t improve by Tuesday, the district’s fuel pumps would run out.

“Drivers of tankers that carry fuel from Panewadi (in Nashik) have called for agitation and have stopped filling fuel.” said Aqeel Abbas, Secretary of the Petroleum Dealers Association, in an interview with PTI.

According to Abbas, “Around 900 to 1,200 tankers carry fuel from depots of oil companies and transport it to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Jalna, Dhule, Jalgaon, and other districts,”

SOURCE: https://www.livemint.com/news/india/long-queues-at-nagpur-petrol-pumps-as-truck-drivers-protest-against-hit-and-run-law-watch-video-11704164049629.html