Are you being cheated of precious LPG?

Sudhakar Rao / TNN / Mar 5, 2006, 23:28 IST

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The district supply office says that many people get less cooking gas than what they pay for.

VADODARA: Rajesh Bhatia, a resident of Makarpura, was surprised when his LPG cylinder emptied out much before time. The low weight of the cylinder that he received had already made him suspicious.
So, he weighed the new cylinder he received, only to have his doubts confirmed. The cylinder was six kg below the standard 14.2 kg. Bhatia's case is no exception.
The district supply office says that many people get less cooking gas than what they pay for. In fact local civil supplies officials have even caught delivery boys redhanded while they were clandestinely transferring LPG from domestic and commercial cylinders to smaller ones.
There are 40 gas agencies providing LPG cylinders of Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum in Vadodara.

Last year, the officials inspected 17 gas agencies after receiving a tip-off and registered cases against four of them. The officials also recovered 119 gas bottles illegally stored in godowns.
"It is mandatory that customers ask for a weighting scale and measure the quantum of LPG before signing the acknowledgement receipt," says district supply officer, Digvijaysinh Jadeja.
"People are not aware of the requisite weight, which is also a major reason for the malpractice. There is a hue and cry only when there is a shortage of LPG in the market."

District officials claim that over 95 per cent of people either do not ask for a weighting scale or do not know of the requisite standard.
The modus operandi in most cases is simple. Valves of bigger cylinders are opened and after the LPG is transferred to smaller cylinder, it is resealed with a fake security plastic cover.
It is the delivery boys who are involved, say district officials. For instance, on February 3 a delivery boy of Radhika Gas Agency near Dabhoi on Waghodia road was nabbed while he was transferring LPG from one cylinder to another.
In other cases, the delivery staff themselves booked cylinders in the consumers' name and diverted it to the black market later. Traders normally earn a small fortune in the entire operation.
The growing menace is also attributed to the confusion over whose responsibility is to check the malpractice. Officials in district supply department say that the gas companies do not monitor the distribution on a regular basis.
In fact, there is no monitoring mechanism to track defaulters at the point of delivery, they say. On the other hand, companies say that the responsibility of bringing the culprits to book is of the police and the district officials.
In the past, the district administration had revoked licenses of eight agencies involved in the malpractice. A source in Indian Oil Corporation says that keeping track of the supplying agencies is an enormous task.
IOC conducts inspections randomly on supply outlets and has software to track the distribution and consumption pattern of specific areas, say sources.

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