Massive protests & queues across the island demanding fuel

Massive protests coupled with kilometres-long queues of vehicles have been reported at fuel stations today across many parts of the country, despite the government's repeated assurances of supplying fuel without any delays.

 
Thousands of vehicles formed queues at fuel stations which display signs that they ran out of fuel or were closed.  There were some people waiting in queues for over six hours to purchase fuel whenever fuel unloads at fuel stations. 
 
Despite the lesser vehicular movement on the roads within Colombo and suburbs, long vehicle queues kept blocking the roads. 
 
Meanwhile, a 53-year-old man who was waiting in a queue in Panandura had passed away while waiting for fuel.
 
A source at the Petroleum Corporation (CPC) said that they are distributing according to a priority list and will only distribute fuel if the fuel station owners pay them in cash.
 
He further elaborated that earlier they supplied fuel on a credit basis but now have decided to issue fuel only for stations within the priority list which pay in cash upfront. 
 
The official elaborated that a 45000 MT diesel shipment is due to arrive today. The official added that from that 15,000 Mt are scheduled to be given for CEB for power generation, while 25,000 Mt is to be distributed to the fuel stations island-wide. 
 
The official said if the priority list system is applied the diesel amount released to fuel stations would last for a week. 
 
The Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijeasekara said that with financial restrictions, CPC imports fuel to manage for a week. Still, some consumers collect Fuel for a month or more for their machinery and generators.