Gaya: The LPG crisis continues to persist despite efforts by the district administration to ensure a hassle-free supply to nearly eight lakh consumers in the district. Some dealers are allegedly still indulging in malpractices, including black marketing and manipulation of records to mislead officials.There are a total of 67 gas agencies in the district.On Sunday, a police patrol team unearthed an illegal LPG storage unit operating in the Manpur locality. As many as 39 cylinders and 62 consumer cards were recovered from the site. The seized cylinders belonged to two oil marketing companies—Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL).Police are struggling to trace the source of the cylinders. BPCL has 27 agencies in the district, followed by 24 of IOCL.A social activist alleged that such illegal storage would not have been possible without the connivance of gas agencies.Earlier, during raids conducted by supply officials at an agency in Manpur, discrepancies were found between the stock register and the actual number of domestic LPG cylinders. While the stock register showed 363 filled cylinders, physical verification revealed that only six were filled and the remaining 357 were empty. The register also recorded 137 empty cylinders, whereas the actual number stood at 486.District supply officer Ashok Kumar Chaudhary said a case has been registered against the agency under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.“In many cases, offenders get away with unlawful practices due to oversight and other shortcomings,” said social activist Nand Kishore aka Johny.The district control room received as many as 1,301 LPG-related complaints in the last week of March. The most common grievance was that consumers received delivery messages despite not receiving cylinders. Booking anomalies were also reported.The district administration, however, claimed that most of the complaints have been resolved.According to records, 60,811 LPG bookings are currently pending delivery. District magistrate Shashank Shubhankar said the district has an average daily demand of 14,488 cylinders.
