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On November 21, 29 domestic gas cylinders were seized for unauthorised utilisation in Belghoria. A month earlier, in mid-September, police cracked down on a truck carrying 5,000 kg of ganja concealed in Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders, at Byrnihat, Guwahati.

LPG cylinders are clearly in the news, not just in Calcutta but also down south in Kerala. District president T.K.A. Azeez of Kozhikode District Consumers Protection Committee, who organised a meeting of gas consumers in Kozhikode recently, highlighted the fact that people were facing problems owing to the delay in the delivery of gas cylinders at their doorsteps. They suspected that the agencies were diverting cylinders to other users like hotels.

The suspicion was not baseless. A gas agency in Perumanna had unloaded a truckload of cylinders at another place instead of its godown just a few days before that. Alert local people informed the police and the attempts of the agency to divert the cylinders elsewhere were thwarted, he recounted.

In Calcutta, LPG customers are an equally harried lot these days. Ranging from delays in delivery to unscrupulous dealers who tamper with bookings, from the unauthorised use of domestic cylinders for commercial and industrial purposes to its use in automobiles — their list of grievances is endless.

But dealers on their part refuse to be cowed by such allegations. Debashish Shaw of P.L. Gas agency near Tollygunge cites different reasons for the delay in supply. In August, he blames it on the rains. In September, it’s the festive season. In winter, it’s the cold that results in delays in delivery, he says nonchalantly.

Says one such hassled consumer in Garia in south Calcutta, “I had booked a cylinder with my local LPG dealer, South End Gas, on October 18. But I was not supplied with one till November 1. When I visited the agency, a representative said my October 18 booking was cancelled, because ‘it had been quite some time since the cylinder was booked’.”

That wasn’t all. The consumer was told that he had been allotted a new docket number, though he’d received no intimation to that effect. Moreover, on the same day he was provided with a cylinder, and the docket number on the slip was the same as the one assigned to him on October 18.

“If they had cancelled my October 18 booking, as they’d claimed, how did they supply me a cylinder under the same docket number,” he asks, adding, “They also added that since they have given me a cylinder on November 1, I was not allowed to place an order for another cylinder before November 21. I wanted to know if the cylinder that was booked on November 1 got automatically cancelled but they failed to provide me with an answer.”

Chandan Lal Mukherjee, the owner of South End Gas Agency in Garia, however, denies knowledge of the incident. On the contrary, he emphasises, “We are delivering cylinders within 48 hours,” adding that delays are only caused during Durga puja when there are operational constraints such as roads being blocked for heavy vehicles (carrying cylinders) and panic-booking by consumers, invariably leading to a crisis.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), however, offers a possible explanation for the inordinate delays. “There is a tendency to divert domestic LPG for non-domestic, commercial purposes because of the differences in prices between subsidised domestic LPG and non-subsidised LPG for commercial use,” says an IOCL official.

He has a point. Indane’s domestic LPG cylinders are available at a subsidised rate of Rs 350 while commercial cylinders are priced at Rs 1,000. Says a consumer who has substantial knowledge of the underhand dealings pertaining to LPG cylinders, “Most dealers supply domestic cylinders to restaurants for Rs 450-Rs 700. In fact, they also supply them for industrial purposes. Instead of using dissolved acetalyne and oxygen for cutting iron, they now use cooking cylinders with oxygen because it’s a cheaper option.”

That is why though LPG cylinders are supposed to be supplied within two-three days of the booking — as IOCL officials claim — that hardly happens. But rural and semi-urban areas are an exception. “There is a low customer density in those areas. So one has to wait for a minimum order quantity for those areas,” says the official.

Yet another common complaint made by consumers is that of delivery boys selling cylinders in order to make a quick buck. In fact, there are those like Debjani Mukherjee, a housewife in Dakshineshwar on the outskirts of Calcutta, who are used to such deals. Mukherjee, who regularly buys cylinders from the delivery boy, has her reasons. “My dealer takes one or two weeks to supply a cylinder, which means that although I use double cylinders I get only one cylinder every month. So often I have to resort to buying cylinders from the delivery boy for which I have to shell out an extra Rs 30 to Rs 40.”

But while dealers like Mukherjee of South End Gas Agency — to whom these delivery boys are accountable — wash their hands off such dealings, another dealer reveals on condition of anonymity, “A lot of money changes hands here. We are only at the bottom rung. When you have been delivering cylinders in an area for some time, you develop a rapport with the residents. So if there’s a crisis and somebody needs a cylinder on an emergency basis, the delivery boys try and help.”

Helping someone at the cost of denying another his due is perhaps unfair. It’s time the buck stops somewhere.

help at hand

If you’re an IOCL consumer and haven’t received a cylinder within two-three days of booking, call IOCL (Toll free no. 18003455566)

If you are a witness to unauthorised use of domestic cylinders, report the matter to the local authority.

If you’re a Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited consumer and need to lodge a complaint, call up 2282-5835. Or you could e-mail your grievances to ssaha@hpcl.co.in or adutta@hpcl.co.in