Substandard gas cylinders LPG licensees urged to run awareness campaign

Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) directed all LPG licensees on Wednesday to run an awareness campaign against substandard gas cylinders to save public life and property. In a directive to all LPG marketing companies and LPG Association of Pakistan, the OGRA notification states that a number of LPG cylinder blast incidents have been reported resulting in serious loss to public life and property.
In this connection, proactive measures should be ensured to safeguard general public from any untoward incident in future. Therefore, the LPG licence holders should sensitise public by advertisements in leading newspapers on safe use of LPG.
Earlier, chairman LPG Distributors Association Irfan Khokhar had stated that as many as 3240 people had been died due to blast of substandard LPG cylinders for the last 11 years. "If no action is taken in 10 days, the LPG Distributors Association will take the matter to court of law as it will not compromise on the safety of consumers."
The regulatory authority has been allegedly unmoved over hundreds of killings due to LPG cylinder blasts and is reluctant to take action against manufacturers of substandard cylinders, Khokhar said. The LPG association has come up with a demand to make amendments in law to term manufacturing of substandard cylinders as non-bailable offence, Khokhar added.