The Dehradun district officials have raided various gas agencies here on Monday to clamp down on black marketing of lPG cylinders.At Shiva Gas agency, a police force was deployed to monitor distribution of subsidised cylinders to customers. large numbers of customers reached the agencies early in the morning to procure this financial year’s quota of subsidised cylinders on Monday.
However, when district officers asked about the reason for increasing backlog at some agencies, agency officials stated that backlog was increasing due to short supply of gas cylinders from Indian Oil Corporation. Customers of the Sahkarita Indane Gas Agency were unable to procure cylinders on Monday due to short supply for three days cited by agency officials.
Many customers had also queued at the Shiva gas agency to procure their cylinders. To maintain law and order at the agency, its official had informed the police and the cylinders were distributed in police presence.
The large number of customers who had booked their refill 15 days ago in their respective agencies failed to procure their subsidised cylinder on Monday due to black-marketing of cylinders by agency and short supply of cylinders by IOC.
Doon lPG Distributors’ Association (DlPGDA) president and Valley Gas Agency owner Chamanlal said that a backlog of about 1500 cylinders was reported at almost all agencies in the state. He further said that in his agency, around 300 cylinders were supplied by the IOC on Sunday which were provided to the customers on first come first served basis on Monday.
Dehradun Tehsildar Sangeeta Kanojia said that she conducted surprise inspections at Uttaranchal Gas Agency and Satyasheel Gas Agency and checked their register. She observed that the two agencies had a backlog of 1,500 to 2,000 cylinders. An inspection report has been prepared and will be forwarded to the district administration, she added.
The IOC Dehradun area deputy manager Dhirendra Kumar said that around 8000 cylinders were supplied for Uttarakhand on Sunday to meet the customers’ requirements apart from cylinders supplied on Monday. Backlog had increased by about 30 per cent in various agencies due to customers trying to get their quota of subsidised cylinders in view of the end of the financial year. Cylinders supplied to customers on Tuesday will be counted in their next financial year’s quota of subsidised cylinders, he added.