There was much panic in parts of Raichur - the area where fears of a fuel shortage took hold - when panic erupted from petrol stations late into the evening. Residents of Kalmala and Sirwar rushed to petrol stations with cans, barrels and even tractors to get it, scared petrol and diesel supplies would run dry.
The queue could be said to be in the hundreds in petrol bunks until almost midnight when hundreds of bike riders and vehicle owners came to fill their tanks in the night. There have been very large containers seen in one case with 50 and 60 litres to hold fuel and even tractor drivers bringing water tanks and equipment from farms with barrels to store diesel, many witnesses reported. The sudden boom in demand heightened the sense of rush and chaos.
Fuel station owners had dismissed these rumours and said there appears no actual lack of petrol or diesel on the market. They said this was in fact caused by misinformation related to regional and geopolitical tension but in a certain fashion because it made a lot of people feel to check who purchased petrol at fuel stations and when.
"We usually sell around 5,000 litres of fuel per day but because of panic buying, sales shot up to nearly 20,000 litres in a single day,” one petrol bunk owner said. “People are unnecessarily hoarding fuel out of fear that it won’t be available tomorrow, but there is no such issue.”
Public Safety and Safety Agency officials have expressed hope that people remain calm and avoid seeing or believing the information without verified information. But that fuel supply across the region is also adequate and supply of fuel is on the right track and distribution is going on as directed. Low consumption of fuels in great quantities also poses an alarm to society, the warnings said.
A quick story like that illustrates how rapidly rumours can escalate to mass panic, disrupt daily life as well as put pressure on other necessary services in communities. All parties involved in this case say these are one-off incidents and need to be resolved in the shortest time as the public need be notified and behave in a way that’s both ethical and responsible.
With the situation gradually moving upwards people in the locality need to calm down so local petrol pump operators and fellow officials will be working to prevent panic buying from occurring again. The episode should serve to show how misinformation, particularly in uncertain time, can have real-world consequences often much more immediate than what some people fear.
