Illegal LPG refilling goes on unabated in SIDCUL

Tribune News Service

Haridwar, June 26

Illegal refilling of domestic cylinders of liquefied gas petroleum (LPG) is going on at a large scale in the industrial estate of SIDCUL in Haridwar. The district administration and the police have not been able to check the illegal activity and act against the culprits.

Since the formation of the SIDCUL industrial estate at Roshanabad, 15 km from Haridwar city, there has been a sharp rise in the population comprising mainly people belonging to other states.

As most of the labourers or workers working in the SIDCUL don’t have legal LPG connections, they rely on small 5 kg cylinders for household purposes. This has led to mushrooming of illegal LPG refilling of smaller cylinders from domestic cylinders.

Social activist Shamsher Bahadur says the district administration has failed to rein in the culprits who are using the subsidised domestic LPG connections for commercial use. “There is a huge shortage of LPG cylinders. People don’t easily get gas cylinders on home booking but when it comes to small cylinders, these are easily available in the market at exorbitant prices. One kg of gas is filled for Rs 170 to Rs 210. Local people are also providing their domestic cylinders to make a profit. This trade is going on for the past few years but the administration seldom launches a drive to check it. Refilled cylinders can be got from the SIDCUL, Roshanabad, Rawli Mehdood and bordering colonies of Shivalik Nagar, Subash Nagar,” says Shamsher.

District Supplies Officer Rahul Sharma says soon a anti-refilling drive will be launched in the industrial cluster to ensure violators face legal action. It’s a crime to misuse domestic cylinders for commercial purpose and also refill them, he added.

Rao Affaq Ali, a local resident and vice-chairperson of the Zila Panchayat, says he will take up the matter with the District Magistrate and the SSP as many an accidents and fire incidents have taken place in this area during the refilling of gas cylinders.

Notably, under the Gas Cylinders Rule,1981, refilling of cylinders by anyone other than the bottling plant company is prohibited.