As she prepares an early dinner for her husband and three young children, Linda Christopherson, a psychologist in Colombo, is very worried. Except tomatoes, onion and rice, there isn't much else to cook. Her husband Charles, an IT firm director, has been in the queue for petrol for over four days without success. At last, he left his car near the fuel station and returned home.
"It is a double whammy for us. Skyrocketing prices of food, oil and vegetables and lack of availability of fresh supplies," Linda tells me as she prepares tomato chutney and rice meal. "We went to get fresh fish but due to diesel shortage, fishermen are not venturing out. Chicken prices have gone up three to four times in the supermarket where it is available. But due to frequent power cuts, we don't know how fresh it is," she adds.
Charles has just bought a cycle at four times its price to be able to move around in the neighbourhood. "Even after four days, I could not get fuel for my car. The pump ran out of fuel. I will try again in two days but I will only get 14 litres of petrol for Rs 7,000. That is why I have bought a cycle to remain mobile," he says.
Their three children study from home. There is no fuel for school buses. But frequent power cuts make education from home very difficult and children are unable to concentrate.
But this isn't the problem just for Charles and Linda. The current economic crisis has hurt every segment of Sri Lankan society. A Mercedes Benz and a BMW jostle for space with an autorickshaw (called Trishaw in Sri Lanka). "We are trying our best to help people. There are government orders to ration petrol. The cost is Rs 2000 for motorcycles and Rs 2500 for trishaws and Rs 7000 for cars. However, if a vehicle has a medical emergency or a pregnant woman we try to give priority. Police, emergency workers and taxis with foreign tourists travelling out of Colombo can get a tank full," an official at the Lanka IOC petrol pump told India Today. India has helped the island nation get some fuel, food and cooking gas but the problem is far from over.
Ahead of the nomination for the post of President of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency in the island nation. He also spoke of efforts being made to ameliorate the problems being faced by the people. He said July would be a difficult time for fuel supply but that diesel stocks had been secured and are being distributed.
But on the ground, tempers are running high. At the Lanka IOC pump in Colombo, Sri Lankan Air Force personnel had been roped in to help police maintain peace and often tempers ran high with the patience of those in the queue for several days wearing thin. "Back off! Don't break the queue," an air force official shouted at a trishaw driver who said two-wheeler drivers in their desperation were forming multiple queues pushing them out.
India is learnt to have dispatched both oil and gas but the queues remain long with the country on edge.
The Inter University Students' Federation (IUSF) has given a call for a massive protest on July 19, the day of filing nominations for the president's post in Sri Lanka and the country remains on tenterhooks ahead of another round of protests.