Cylinders seized during raid on illegal LPG refilling centres in Berhampur. Picture by Gopal Krishna Reddy

Berhampur, Aug. 23: The district civil supply officials have launched a crackdown on misuse of LPG gas.

Close on the heels of seizure of 44 domestic LPG cylinders during raids in 14 hotels in the city last month, another 20 LPG cylinders were seized on Wednesday evening during refilling.

“We have seized nine domestic LPG cylinders (14.2kg) and 11 cylinders (5kg) from the back of a small hotel. The small cylinders were being refilled from the ones meant for domestic use. So far, no one has come forward to claim the seized cylinders,” said assistant civil supply officer Purushottam Lenka.

Lenka said: “A total of 44 domestic cylinders were seized from 14 hotels during the raids on July 30. On that day, another 81 domestic LPG cylinders were seized during simultaneous raids in different places in the district. Hotels, eateries and other commercial establishments are supposed to use blue 19kg commercial LPG cylinders. Use of domestic LPG cylinders in commercial establishments is illegal,” he said.

There is a price difference of Rs 40 in a kilogram of gas between domestic and commercial cylinders. One 19kg commercial cylinder costs Rs 1,330 and 14.2kg domestic cylinder costs Rs 415.

There are seven LPG supplying agencies with 1.21 lakh consumers in Berhampur.

Companies ask the agencies to distribute commercial cylinders every month. These seven agencies will have to sell 69,000 commercial cylinders every month. Since there is gap between demand and supply, domestic gas cylinders are used by commercial establishments.

LPG supplying agencies have admitted that there is short supply of LPG gas cylinders in comparison to the requirements in Berhampur.