Getting a license to sell petrol is a boon for the politicians and some people in the business. A petrol pump where usually petrol and diesel is sold. It is like a goose which lays golden eggs. The petroleum is the evidence of life existed for millions of years on the earth, now being exploited for human need and greed.

The person who provides service at the pump always has some tricks in earning money. The machine is operated in such a way that, always less petrol is delivered to the customer. When someone asks petrol for say Rs. 200, the person holding the pump nozzle will stop the flow at say at Rs. 199.34 and will take Rs. 200 from the customer. When there is no paise existing, giving a change is impossible. Therefore extra money is earned for every transaction is the money earned by him.

Manipulation of the whole system by the petrol pump station owner. I knew a driver who worked for the inspection team of a petrol company. Wherever he went he was given free petrol upon the insistence of the officers. Every officer involved in the inspection knows how these petrol pump owners manipulate and sell petrol. So demands free petrol or diesel from the owner. A well-understood network?!

A few years back many petrol pumps inserted computer chips in the petrol pump machines so that the reading is always shown more and there is a percentage of saving of petrol proportionately for every quantity of delivery. Some petrol pumps have been found adulterating petrol with diesel, naphtha and other cheap combustible liquids.

The ration shop dealers selling the government subsidised kerosene, grains, sugar, edible oil and other items are one of the most corrupt people. I know a person in our Basti, he sells kerosene to people in black, sells it at a higher price to the people without a ration card, which is used by Autowalas as fuel in their vehicles. These autorickshaws are the highly polluting vehicles roaming in the cities and are easily recognisable.

The highly subsidised rice does not reach the poor, some of it goes into the black market. Some millers by purchasing the subsidised rice, re-polish and sell it in the open market at a higher price as premium rice. They have become millionaires too. It is a nexus of so many people. The corrupt systems are some of the most well-organised systems in the world. Which are well networked and there is so much immunity from the acting systems such as police, law and government officials, who also part of the nexus.

In the past, people were mixing very small stones in the rice and other grains for gaining weight. Picking stones is a major work for many women, the gain from adultering is less valuable. But the work of women involved in picking the stones is very labour intensive and a costly affair.

Once a person was caught mixing soil with the fuel in a personal flight of a person, whose family owns the major petroleum production and refineries company. An adulteration of this nature would have caused an accident and the person would have died.