Following cylinder blast, Chandigarh MC removes illegal vendors, asks others to follow norms

Sandeep Rana

Chandigarh, January 9

Following a Chandigarh Tribune report about a cylinder blast at an authorised vendor’s site in Sector 19, the enforcement wing of the Municipal Corporation today seized LPG cylinders of weight exceeding the permissible limit besides asking vendors to have fire extinguishers.

Commercial cylinders of up to 5-kg allowed

Officials in the Municipal Corporation said as per the bylaws of the Street Vendors Act, the vendors using LPG cylinders needed to keep fire extinguishers. They were allowed to use only commercial cylinders of up to 5-kg weight.

Officials said as per the bylaws of the Street Vendors Act, the vendors using LPG cylinders needed to have fire extinguishers. They were allowed to use only commercial cylinders of up to 5-kg weight.

It was found that most vendors were either using domestic cylinders or the ones exceeding the permissible weight of 5 kg that, too, without fire extinguishers. This puts lives of people in crowded places at risk.

Saturday’s incident happened early in the morning, thus there were no casualties.

The enforcement wing seized seven cylinders with weight above the permissible limit. “All vendors using cylinders for cooking ‘paranthas’ or ‘tikkis’ were asked to have fire extinguishers. Violators will have to face the music,” said an official.

The teams of the MC raided vendors’ sties in Sectors 35, 19, 22 and 9. As many as 98 illegal vendors were removed. Seven trucks were used to take away the seized goods. However, a few vendors resumed business as soon as the teams had left.

The illegal vendors had encroached on parking lots, pavements, roadside and other public spaces. Bags and other things kept in corridors of Sector 17 were also removed.