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City scrambles for last drop of cheaper fuel

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The information of fuel price hike circulated among filling station owners in the city and elsewhere over cell phone, as the state minister for petroleum and mineral resources briefed reporters at around noon yesterday at his office.
Speculation was rife. Some claimed, quoting State Minister AKM Mosharraf Hossain, that the decision would take an immediate effect, while others preferred to wait until today.
However, the price hike was
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confirmed by yesterday afternoon.
Meanwhile, all 187 private filling stations in the city and its periphery shut to thousands of fuel-seekers.
Interestingly, the only filling station in the city that remained open until late yesterday evening, with hundreds queuing up for fuel near the Hotel Sheraton intersection belonged to the state.
Staffers of the filling station said they would keep on supplying at the previous rate until they ran out of fuel.
One such staffer said that there was no question of closing the filling station or charging people more, as it did not receive any formal order.
Filling station owners were playing on the situation and started hoarding their stocks yesterday evening.
The filling station owners' association blamed the government for creating confusion. Some association leaders reasoned out that they had stopped supplying firstly because they had not received any supply from the government depot throughout the day.
"We were not sure how much the hike would be. We also feared that our workers might rush into fighting with customers over the price," said Kazi Nurul Amin, general secretary of the Dhaka Division's Petrol Pump Owners Association.
A filling station worker said, "The government should have kept the decision under wraps and announced it during the 10.00pm BTV news bulletin, or it should have
been announced on a public holiday."
The worker said petrol was being smuggled to India. The hike would check the rising trend, he thinks.