The lack of adequate supply of lPG cylinders from the Indian Oil Corporation to gas agencies is causing inconvenience to the Doon residents for the past 20 days. Around
50,000 cylinders are stuck in backlog in various gas agencies based in Dehradun, said All India lPG Federation Uttarakhand circle president and Valley Gas Agency owner Chamanlal. The agency operators failing to provide cylinders to the customers are facing verbal arguments from them regularly, he said.
Chamanlal said that he along with a delegation had met the district magistrate recently and requested him to take measures to improve cylinder supply in the district.
However, IOC, Dehradun area manager VK Sundriyal denied that the supply of cylinders from IOC was erratic. Cylinders are being supplied for Dehradun from Karnal bottling plant and Haridwar bottling plant. Due to road blocks during Kanwar Mela, there was a problem, he said.
In view of the fact that reducing 12 days’ backlog would prove tough, IOC has started supplying cooking gas from luni (Uttar Pradesh) bottling plant to Dehradun- based agencies from Thursday.
With a very few trucks with cylinders reaching Dehradun from IOC bottling plants even after the Kanwar Mela was over, backlog in various gas agencies is rising.
Shortage of cylinders supplied from the oil company to the agencies is landing the customers in trouble. Customers are visiting their respective agencies to procure cooking gas, but they are returning disappointed with cooking gas not arriving at the agencies.
Dinesh Singh, a customer, said that he had booked his cylinder 15 days ago. “But it is still elusive,” he added.
Chamanlal said that due to erratic supply of cylinders from IOC bottling plant, customers are facing inconveniences in Dehradun. Things were dismal on Monday as no truck carrying cylinders had reached the gas agencies in Dehradun from the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) bottling plants, he said, adding that only a couple of them had on Tuesday. The Valley Gas Agency had received 528 cylinders on Tuesday while the figure was 450 cylinders for Satyasheel Gas Agency.
Dehradun district food and civil supply officer PS Pangti said that the supply from IOC had been grossly inadequate over the past few days. They have written to IOC officers to improve supply for Dehradun to meet customer’s demand and reduce the backlog in the agencies. He further said that adequate number of trucks loaded with cylinders have reached the gas agencies attached to of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation limited and Bharat Petroleum Corporation limited (BPCl).