Kanpur: District civil supply department in Kanpur on Thursday exposed two cases linked to supply of LPG, including overpricing of commercial cylinders and illegal refilling of domestic cylinders and recommended registration of cases under Essential Commodities Act.In an ongoing campaign against black marketing and illegal refilling of gas cylinders, supply department cracked down at two separate locations. Investigation revealed overcharging for commercial gas cylinders by collecting amounts exceeding prescribed rates and illegal refilling of domestic gas cylinders. In both cases, recommendation was made to register cases under Essential Commodities Act. So far, 12 FIRs were registered in incidents involving LPG cylinders.On Mar 25, a team inspected a fast food vendor in Ashok Nagar and found commercial gas cylinders being used and three commercial cylinders were recovered from the premises.On being questioned, hotel operator Ashraf Ali said the cylinders were purchased from S B Associate Agency in Ashok Nagar. He said one cylinder was procured on Mar 23 and two on Mar 25, for Rs 3,500 per cylinder.Based on tax invoices available during investigation, the base price of a commercial cylinder was found to be Rs 2,496.02 and, after adding 18% GST, the legitimate price amounted to Rs 2,945.30. Despite this, Rs 3,500 was charged per cylinder, indicating overcharging of about Rs 554.7 per cylinder.The team seized three commercial cylinders from the site and placed them in safe custody. The report recommended registration of FIR against agency operator Sachin Mishra and the hotel operator under Section 3/7 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.In another operation, a joint team from supply department raided a roadside kiosk on Tusli road in Kakadeo area on Thursday morning.According to report submitted by supply inspector Abhishek Kumar (Anwarganj), Samar, son of the late Mushtaq, resident of Roshan Nagar, Ram Vihar, was found refilling domestic LPG into small, non-ISI marked cylinders.An electronic weighing scale with 30 kg capacity, nine old non-ISI cylinders, one partially filled cylinder and a regulator and thin pipes used for gas refilling were recovered. The accused failed to provide satisfactory explanation regarding illegal refilling of the cylinders. Recommendation was made to register FIR against the accused under Section 3/7 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, according to Rakesh Kumar district Civil Supply officer.
