Gas and diesel sales in Moulmein are being restricted in an attempt to prevent fires, say local sources.
In an official meeting held earlier this week by the Southeast Command, civil servants were told that every resident of Moulmein has a responsibility to prevent fires in the city. Over 1,000 shops were burned in a market fire last week, and a fire gutted the inside of a residential home near Moulmein University yesterday. Gasoline or diesel have been implicated in neither fire.
The Commander of the Southeast Command extended the responsibility to prevent fires to gas station owners, and said that gasoline sales would be prohibited inside the city. If people want to sell gasoline, the commander said, they can go outside the city.
This week, authorities have been going shop to shop and telling proprietors that they can only continue selling gasoline if they must sign an affidavit accepting responsibility for any fires caused by their fuel sales. They were also warned that they must pay a new fee to maintain the rights to sell gasoline. The size of the fee, however, has yet to be specified.
The restrictions on the sale of gasoline are to be backed by fines, said police and Peace and Development Council official, who also said the restrictions are an attempt to prevent more fires.
“Yesterday the township headman came and said ‘you cannot allow gas to be sold. If people sell, they have to pay. If a fire starts from your gas, you have to take responsibility,’” a shop owner who sells gas and signed the affidavit told IMNA.
Shop owners expressed frustration with the new fee, and said that as gasoline prices have declined, so have their profits. International oil prices have declined as global economic woes have damped demand.
“They did not arrive at our shop yet. But the authorities have gone to every other shop. When they will come to my shop I don’t know. They say we can sell outside the city, but nobody wants to do that because transportation costs will be very high. Plus, now that gas prices are going down there are many shops and we have a lot of competition.”
