Forget autonomy, anti-adulteration panel gets axe

The Ministry wrote to AAC’s Director-General that ‘‘a decision has been taken to wind up the Anti-Adulteration Cell’’ by July 31. It asked the D-G to hand over records to the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC) and vacate the AAC’s Delhi headquarters and regional offices.

The closure follows a report by Additional Secretary M.S. Srinivasan into the AAC’s working, which was ordered after Regional Director (North) Sandeep Garg was arrested by the CBI in April for taking bribe.

CBI raids at 10 locations pegged the assets of the 1991 batch IAS officer at Rs 3 crore, including Rs 1.7 crore in bank and Rs 12 lakh at his residence, besides properties and other investments. A month later, Garg’s deputy Uday Shankar was arrested while accepting bribe.

The AAC had been set up in March 2001 at the behest of former oil minister Ram Naik to check adulteration and other malpractices in distribution of petroleum products. Besides, the cell was to inquire into benami operations and supply of adulterants to retail outlets and complaints against Dealer Selection Boards.

But the Srinivasan report called for its closure, saying in three years, the AAC had failed to check adulteration and malpractices in distribution of petro products. It had also failed to address the larger issues of providing policy and technological inputs to curb the menace, and instead ended up inspecting retail outlets and transporters, along with other investigative agencies.

Sources said the AAC is also being shut because it has no accountability or statutory backing and harasses small players. ‘‘Only dealers were held accountable and not producers of adulterants,’’ a source said. ‘‘It had no powers to shut down retail outlets but were using coercive authority over oil companies to harass dealers.”

The Ministry order says only five AAC officials will be retained for completing formalities after closure. They will report to the PPAC.