Cuttack, Oct. 12: The district administration has decided to intensify its drive against illegal storage, transportation and black-marketing of LPG cylinders ahead of the festive season.

This decision was taken after authorities of the food and civil supplies department confiscated 24 cylinders yesterday after finding out that they were being sold at high rates at Jagatpur.

“After the recent cap on cylinders, we have been getting reports of many people submitting fake documents to get illegal LPG connections. So, the district administration has decided to intensify raids and initiate action against those indulged in the illegal sale, storage and black-marketing of the cylinders,” said sub-collector Jyoti Prakash Das.

“We suspect even local distributors are involved in this. They are issuing connections to various persons without verifying their details,” Das added. Official sources said that 15 cylinders of Indane, seven of HP and two commercial cylinders were seized during the raid at Jagatpur yesterday. Kartik Rout, 35, of Gopinathpur village under Jagatpur police limits was selling them at a high price.

Rout, who is at large after the incident, has been booked under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act and Clause 3 of the LPG control order, 2000.

“Based on specific inputs, we conducted the raid at Rout’s house and recovered 24 cylinders. They were issued to consumers on the basis of fake documents,” said food and supplies inspector Gyanendria Mishra.

Mishra said there had been a significant rise in the black-marketing of cylinders, and over 400 have been seized during raids this year.

“All the companies have now tightened their Know Your Customer (KYC) norms. Now, we can check whether a person is having a single or multiple connection,” said Biswanath Mukherjee, general secretary, All-Odisha Distributors’ Association.