Bhubaneswar: Sasanka Sekher Sahu, the president of Petroleum Dealers Association (PDA) who has filed an FIR against the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar police commissioner Sudhanshu Sarangi is having an questionable anticident.
Sahu’s continuation as the president of the Petrol Dealers Association is in dispute. Even though his tenure has come to an end, he is continuing as president by virtue of a court’s stay order. The Associatioin’s AGM was supposed to meet on September 15 and elect new office bearers. Sahu allegedly cancelled the meeting at the last moment and removed the secretary arbitrarily.
PDA members told Indian Whispers that Sahu took this step when he came to know that he is not going to be elected again as president as per the by-law of the Association.
The PDA, in fact, is a breakaway group of Utkal Petrol Dealers’ Association, which has the largest membership. PDA was formed opposing the union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s suggestion to give Central government minimum wages to the petrol pump employees. Pradhan had suggested this after he accepted the Utkal Petrol Dealers’ Association’s demand to enhance the dealers commission. The Utkal Petrol Dealers’ Association agreed to implement the minister’s suggestions. However, Sahu and few other dealers opposed the decision of Utkal Petrol Dealhers’ Association and formed the PDA.
Sahu faces the allegation that he had created scene in the Ganjam collector’s office recently when the district collector directed the petrol pumps under his jurisdiction to abide the Supreme Court’s direction -No helmet, No Petrol. He was opposing the collector’s directions.
Sahu has been aggrieved that another petrol pump is coming nearly his Jyoshna Petrol Pump in Pokhariput. He was lobbying that the rival pump should not get the NOC. To put pressure on the Commissioner of Police, who is the competent authority to issue the NOC, Sahu had managed to get a letter from the Odisha governor.
Sources in the Commissionate police headquarter, here, said that Sahu was dropping the name of the governor to influence the Commissioner.
Sahu has filed an FIR with the Capital Police Station of the city alleging that the police commissioner misbehaved with him when he went to met him with the governor’s recommendations on October 21.
On the other hand, CP Sarangi refuted the allegations leveled against him and clarified that he did not misbehave with Sahu.
“At a time when we are trying to give supreme importance to public service, if a person tries to put undue pressure on us because he thinks that he has close links with someone like the CM or the Governor, how can we win the trust of general public who have no such connections,” said the commissioner.
