Residents against ‘costly’ inspection by LPG dealers

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 19

With employees of the LPG distributors busy in conducting inspections at consumers’ houses, residents have been raising questions over the move as they are being charged Rs 150 each. The staff check at consumers’ houses if cylinders are placed appropriately and safety measures followed.

A city resident, GS Bedi, said he witnessed such a visit from his LPG cylinder distributor’s end for the first time. “Though I paid for that, the staff didn’t check my cylinder and apparatus properly. They just asked if the cylinder was being used in the home,” he said.

He wondered what kind of inspection it was. “All of us know how lethal LPG is. Any leakage alarms us and we swing into action immediately to fix the snag,” he said.

Another consumer, Jagpreet Singh, said, “It seems to be another way adopted by the firms to earn money.”

There are over four lakh LPG connections in the district. Officials of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), which has a maximum of 90 per cent of consumers here, has about 2.80 lakh subscribers. Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum have about 1.50 lakh customers. There are 30 distributors associated with the PSUs to distribute LPG cylinders, connections and refills.

When contacted, IOC LPG Manager Ravinder Sharma said, “As per the norms, it is mandatory to carry out inspection of LPG connections once in two years. Despite efforts, distributors don’t show keenness in carrying out inspections as people object to paying the inspection fee.”