Bhubaneswar, April 4: Black marketing of cylinders has become rampant in the city at a time when the government has introduced a cap on LPG.

Civil supply officials on Tuesday seized a vehicle carrying 56 cylinders from Raghunathpur on the outskirts of the city.

The officials had raided a gas distribution agency in Indradhanu Market on February 28 and seized more than 1,900 cylinders of which 300 were filled.

A number of unauthorised shops near Indradhanu Market, CRPF Square, Cuttack-Puri Road and Patia have been doing brisk business by refilling empty cylinders within minutes. The shops charge around Rs 1,000 to refill an empty cylinder of 14.2kg although the market price of subsidised cylinder is less than half that amount.

Smaller gas cylinders, used by students and employed youths, are refilled at a cost of Rs 95 to Rs 100 a kg. Roadside eateries and fast food kiosks, which need to obtain a commercial gas connection, are using domestic cylinders. A 19-kg commercial gas cylinder costs Rs 1,681.

This results in customers having to wait for months to get a refill.

“We have to wait for one month to get a cylinder refilled. Most of time, roadside eateries and tea stalls, in nexus with unscrupulous distributors, get the cylinders while we have to face hardship,” alleged Prasant Sahu, a local resident of VSS Nagar.

Consumers have staged demonstrations several times over the issue. Recently, around 100 angry consumers, mostly women, had gathered outside a gas agency in Indradhanu Market, which failed to supply them with cylinders in time.

Sources said the city has more than 2.5 lakh domestic gas connections whereas genuine commercial gas connections are in the thousands.

Consumers blamed the government for failing to control black marketing of LPG cylinders.

“Everyone knows that tea kiosks and roadside eateries have been running their businesses with domestic cylinders. But the government never raids these shops,” said Subashis Kanungo, who works for a private company.

The civil supply officials said they had been conducting frequent raids to prevent black marketing.

“We have seized a number of unauthorised cylinders. The raids will continue,” said civil supplies inspector, Bhubaneswar, Jnanendriya Mishra.

State coordinator of Indian Oil P.K. Das said their officials had been frequently visiting distributors and checking cash memos to ensure that cylinders were not being supplied to unauthorised consumers.