Petro punch to hapless Hyderabadis amid pandemic
The middle class people, already burdened by general price rise, are at their wits’ end as petrol price crosses `100
image for illustrative purpose
Hyderabad: THE petrol price for one litre in Hyderabad has breached Rs 100 on June 14. The Hyderabadis are a worried lot with the petrol crossing the century mark. A common man is at his wit's end tackling the Covid-19 onslaught in the form of lockdowns and increased essential commodity prices, now the petrol prices reaching Rs 100 is like a final nail in the coffin.
In Hyderabad, different sections of people live and travel around the city for work or other purposes using their two wheelers or four wheelers. With the petrol price increase, they feel difficult to use their vehicle to go to offices or on business work. Mostly the middle-class people are the one who feel the pinch of rising petrol price as they use own vehicles for domestic chores and to reach office.
"I used to fill 100 rupees' petrol, which I get for two days of my travelling between Balkampet and OU and to go to places near my home. Now it's not even enough for one day to go to office and leave alone other works," said Rameshwaram Chandra Shekar, a clerk at OU Arts College. People are habituated to use vehicles even for a small distances, but now petrol price crossing Rs 100 makes them think twice before taking out the vehicle. To add to the woes of the public, a small number of buses are plying and no MMTS service for the past one year due to Covid. Though Metro is operational, but it is not available to every corner of the city and auto drivers are having a field day by charging the customers at will.
Hyderabadis are making sure that they not use the vehicles for work or personal purposes to the extent possible. The fuel rise has made the people to learn more about electric vehicles and explore the viability of using them.
"Like any other Hyderabadi, I am also hit with the petrol prices and also punching hole in my pocket in the prevailing situation. If I buy a vehicle next time I will go for electric vehicle and under any circumstance, I will not buy any petrol or diesel vehicle. For now, I walk to get the groceries and other items but for longer distance, I make sure all things are sorted at one trip," says M Praveen Kumar, a freelance photographer. Even those working from home, feel the heat of the petrol price rise, as they find it difficult to use vehicles to go around for personal work.
"100 rupees for one litre petrol is not at all acceptable. Now not even getting 3 litres for Rs 300 but few days back we used to get more than 4 litres of petrol for the same amount. Now that we are working from home, we are not realising the prices, but we are shocked when we see the prices in petrol stations," says Sai, a software employee.
There has been less crowd at the petrol stations in the past week. The total sales volume has fallen.
"Apart from petrol reaching Rs 100 per litre and with Covid lockdowns, there is no business for us and there is total drop in volume of litres sale per day. I can't say, how much the volume sales but we are in loss with increase in prices," said Venkateshwarlu, Manager, University Filling Station, Tarnaka.
The goods carriers are also facing the challenge, with the diesel price almost touching Rs 100.
