Erection of the first ever Civil Filling Station at Leh

By Tenzin Menkyi Housing Colony, Sep 02, 2014
Housing Colony :
The foundation stone for the first civil filling Station of J&K at Maylong Thang (Housing Colony), Leh was laid on 29th August by Drikung Kyabgon Chhetsang Rinpoche, the chief guest of the occasion.

'The  LAHDC, Leh HP Petrol Pump is an endeavor of district administration, aimed for the welfare poor families of our ex-servicemen and support the poorest of the poor lot of the society. The profit from the venture is to be spent exclusively for the outside district medical treatment of poor locals, needy patients and to provide scholarship for under privileged bright and needy student" reads the purpose of the filling station, which is under construction.
 
Other dignitaries presented at the function were H.E.Togden Rinpoche; Rigzin Spalbar, Chairman LAHDC, Simrandeep Singh, DC; Manish Tandon, Sr. General Manager Northern sector Hindustan Petroleum Co-operation Limited (HPCL); EC Agriculture, Sonam Dorjay; Shaffi Lassu, EC Tourism, J&K Govt. officers, Panch, Sarpanch, Nambardhar.  The day was also witnessed by the residents of Maylong-Thang, along with many other onlookers. All together, approximately 300 people witnessed the event.
 
Manish Tandon briefed his speech stating: "HPCL has around 13,000 Petrol Pumps in India and it gives direct contract to different Government to run its own filling station. The main reason behind the opening of a filling station by HPCL, in the name of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) is to mitigate the problems faced by locals having to depend on only one filling station and also to provide good quality, quantity with a better services". "As per CEC and DC of Leh, the profit of the filling Station will be used for patients, poor locals and to the under privileged bright students for further studies.

He further added that "HPCL hopes to finish the construction and market the product by 15th September this year".

DC Simrandeep Singh said in his speech that "this is a dream project of CEC in setting up of a profit making venture by Govt. to provide financial supports to cancer patients, poor locals and to the under privileged bright students for further studies. He also reiterated about how happy proud he feels in sharing his hands in preparation of the paper works to ground the first ever Civil-Government Filling station in J&K other than JK Police. He calls is as "Peoples Pump Project".
 
He further added that the district administration will appoint a Senior Officer, a competent and an honest man as an in charge of the filling station along with few more officers to run the filling station and to vie with existing filling station in providing pure, good quality and quantity products to the public. He stressed on the point that the "we should run it like other private profitable venture". "The filling station will remain open from 6am to 10 pm. Soon, the office will circulate a notice about the petrol pump. Four male and female each, will work in shifts. LAHDC will setup a body, which will decide the usage and channelization of the profit for the benefit of the locals.

"For smooth running of the filling station, especially on the accounting section, works will be carried out with transparency and every Ladakhi will have the right to say on its management” said CEC in his words about the filling station.

He also spoke on how the said station will serve the purpose of benefitting poor and needy locals and state in his speech: “It is a filling station of each and every poor, needy local Ladakhis; no one else". “We must work together in making this Filling Station a 'model' to whole country, whose profit goes into a positive and noble cause for facilitating the needy Ladakhi. All Ladakhi must stand together, leaving behind the differences in political ideology, for the prosperity of Ladakh”.
 
In his succinct word about the filling station, "Drikung Kyabgon Chhetsang Rinpoche, congratulated the LAHDC for opening of the very first civil filling station. He said the purpose of station is “very Buddhist” and also it makes it convenient for the people with an additional filling station is like killing two birds with one stone."

Considering the aims and objectives of the project, Chetsang Rinpoche, suggests the name of station as 'Dhana' filling station. A Sanskrit term meaning 'alms', for which, Rigzin Spalbar said would gladly consider the name.