Berhampur: There was a rush to fill up vehicle tanks at the petrol pumps in the city on Saturday after Berhampur sub-collector Siddharth Shankar Swain along with his team sealed two oil filling stations - PVN Petrol Pump and Kargil Petrol Pump- situated in Town Hall Road on Friday.

These two filling stations have been sealed for violation of rules till further order.

However, Ganjam District Petrol Dealers Association met the Ganjam collector Prem Chandra Chowdhary and requested him to order the reopening of these two filling stations immediately for the benefit of the public. "A delegation of the association met the collector on Saturday at Chatrapur and we apprised him about the situation," said vice president Ganjam District Petrol Dealers Association, Rajesh Kumar Patra.

Berhampur sub-collector had conducted raids at different oil outlets in the city to check if there was any violation of "No helmet, No petrol" rule. The district administration had strictly ordered the petrol pump owners to follow the rule three years ago. Besides, it had conducted awareness programmes on various occasions.

Swain had also asked the petrol pump owners to inform him if they were being threatened for not providing petrol to the bikers who were without helmets.

Closure of these two petrol pumps had its impact on other petrol pumps of the city as long queues were seen. Sudden panic buying was reported on Friday evening from some street vendors as all the filling stations were closed in protest till the night. "I bought one litre of petrol at Rs 100 for my bike," said businessman Rabindra Mohanty of Bijipur.