Illegal sale of Domestic LPG Cylinders goes up in Orissa (BreakingNewsOnline Investigation)

Bhubaneswar (24/7 News Network): Breaking News! Orissa is heading towards a severe cooking gas crisis, as illegal sale of domestic LPG cylinders in the state has gone up significantly over the past three or four months.

The authorities, distributors and local gas agencies have turned a blind eye to the problems being experienced by the consumers and employees working at some local gas agencies, seem to have colluded with illegal traders to gain huge profits at the cost of common people.

Despite the promises made by the Orissa Government on supplying cooking gas within two days of booking, the gas agencies of Bharat Gas, Indane and HP are supplying the cylinders at least 10-12 days after the booking. They attribute the delay to inadequate gas supply.

Ironically, they are also following a policy of taking the booking of a cylinder only after 18 days of the delivery (not booking date) of previous cylinder. That means, a consumer will have a gap of at least 30 days between the delivery of two cylinders.

When we contacted a Bharat Gas distributor, he said that the company is providing only one cooking gas cylinder to each consumer in a month.

Since any household will consume a cylinder within 20-25 days (maximum), they have little option but to keep a second gas cylinder or purchase it in grey market.

Not only the twin cities Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, but also other towns such as Kendrapara, Jajpur, Bhawanipatna, Jeypore, Sambalpur, Koraput, Rourkela, Phulbani, Nawarangpur, Umerkote and others are facing severe cooking gas crisis due to inadequate supply of cooking gas cylinders.

To the utter shock and surprise of the consumers, business establishments, hotels, dhabas and fast food joints are getting gas cylinders without any interruption on a regular basis. Many of them use domestic gas cylinders instead of commercial ones. That puts a question mark on the transparency and honesty of gas agencies in Orissa which are mainly owned by politicians and influential persons.

The growing number of roadside hotels and fast food joints have aggravated the crisis, as they are found using domestic cylinders to save costs. Upon investigation, we found several such roadside fast food joints and hotels using domestic gas cylinders (See Picture above).

It is alleged that employees working at the gas agencies are in collusion with such hotels and fast food joints to provide uninterrupted gas supply to the later. Despite several complaints, the Gas Agencies have turned apathetic to the plight of the consumers.

The Orissa Government, which made tall claims of streamlining the cooking gas distribution process a few months back, has done nothing so far and the situation has now gone from bad to worse.

Unless the government takes immediate action and rein in the erring gas agencies, people in Orissa are likely to suffer more because of this artificial cooking gas crisis. The Oil & Gas companies such as Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) and Indian Oil (Indane) must take a note of this matter.