End the killings

The horrific murder of Yeshwant Sonawane,the additional district collector of Malegaon district in Maharashtra must galvanise government,both at the Centre and in the states,into action. Sonawane was doused in kerosene and set alight by small-time mobsters from a criminal syndicate,of the kind that have formed around the kerosene-adulteration trade. This is not the first time the oil mafia has struck so blatantly; in 2005,S. Manjunath,a sales executive of the Indian Oil Corporation,was murdered when he tried to clamp down on illegal petrol pumps in UP. Following that murder,surveillance of the state-controlled distribution network for kerosene was tightened. But that tightening proved ineffective,and appears to have been quietly abandoned.

Its necessary to note that this daylight attack happened not in a lawless place,in Naxal-infested districts where the writ of the state runs little or not at all; but near Nandgaon,barely 100 km from Nashik. The area has major railway junctions,a well-settled population,a big government presence and several depots for Bharat Petroleum and Indian Oil. For the oil mafia to believe it can act with such impunity here shows the state has cynically turned away from implementing its own regulations. While its necessary to clamp down harshly on this lawbreaking and on the larger network that gave it impetus,the sad truth is that as previous,failed,efforts to better monitor and police the kerosene distribution network have shown we need to abandon,as soon as possible,the subsidisation of kerosene. Nearly 40 per cent of subsidised kerosene doesnt reach the intended beneficiaries. And,worse,we are effectively setting up a system that incentivises and rewards blatant lawbreaking. With the profits available to adulteration gangs petrol is near

Rs 60 a litre,and the kerosene with which its adulterated Rs 12 a litre the incontrovertible fact is that theres absolutely no policy intervention that will make this problem go away permanently. Short of,of course,dismantling this counterproductive subsidy entirely.

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Unless that happens,petrol will continue to be adulterated; our budget will continue to bleed; kerosene will continue to be scarce; and,

tragically,those responsible for the hideous attacks like this one will continue to thrive. The economic necessity of ending this system is now joined to the moral imperative. Let it not last much longer.