New Delhi, March 12 -- The government on Thursday said there was no shortage of petrol, diesel, kerosene or aviation turbine fuel in India after the Opposition criticised it over the handling of the fallout of the West Asia crisis by citing instances of scarcity and panic buying across the country.

Responding to concerns raised by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha, Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri said it was the foremost priority of the government that the kitchens of over 33 crore families, especially the poor and the underprivileged, did not face any shortage of gas.

Domestic supply was fully protected and the delivery cycle unchanged, he said.

"There is no shortage of petrol, diesel, kerosene, aviation turbine fuel or fuel oil. The availability of petrol, diesel, aviation turbine fuel, kerosene, and fuel oil is fully assured," Puri said.

He said retail outlets across the country were well stocked, supply chains were functioning normally.

Gandhi alleged that the government "bartered" to the US India's right to determine its relationships with different oil suppliers due to a "compromise", adding that the war between the US-Israel and Iran was going to have far-reaching consequences.

"The central artery from where 20 per cent of global oil flows, the Strait of Hormuz, has been closed and this is going to have tremendous repercussions, particularly for us because a very large portion of our oil and natural gas comes through the Strait of Hormuz," Gandhi said.

"The pain has just started -- restaurants are closing, there is widespread panic about LPG, street vendors are affected and, as I said, this is only the beginning," the former Congress president said. The foundation of every single nation is its energy security, Gandhi asserted. "I do not say this lightly, but allowing the US to decide who we buy oil, gas from... whether we buy oil from Russia or not, whether our relationship with different oil suppliers can be decided by us, this is what has been bartered," the Congress leader said.

Earlier, Gandhi triggered an uproar in the treasury benches by alleging that the fuel crisis had to do with Puri's friendship with deceased American financier Jeffrey Epstein.

"This is a very puzzling fact as to why a nation the size of India would allow the president of any other nation to give us permission to buy Russian oil, to decide who our relationships are with," Gandhi said. "I have figured the puzzle out. The puzzle is about compromise. We have a gentleman sitting here who is the oil minister (Hardeep Puri), he himself has said that he is a friend of Mr Epstein," Gandhi said, adding, "I have a document which shows his (Puri's) daughter has received money from George Soros."

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.