The vehicles were transporting 194 gas cylinders from Sanga, where the company is based, to Kathmandu for retailing through the network of authorized dealers. [break]
The consumers, reeling under the shortage of fuel for more than a month, suddenly sprung into action when they saw the vehicles transporting a large number of refilled cylinders.
They forced the drivers to stop the vehicles and demanded that the salesmen, who were in the vehicles, sell the gas to them there and then.
Though the salesmen tried to pacify the crowd, telling them the deliveries were meant for retail through various dealers in Kathmandu, the crowd was unrelenting.
“Why is a company operating near our locality sending the supply to distant dealers when consumers nearby like us remain deprived?,” the people who converged on the vehicles shouted.
Eventually, the salesmen gave in and sold the gas at the roadside. “In the process two cylinders were lost,” said Kush Prasad Mali, general secretary of Nepal LPG Industries Association (NLPGIA).
Later in the day, another group of desperate consumers also tried to take control of three vehicles ferrying refilled cylinders from Sagar Gas Company.
The vehicles were transporting the cylinders from Banepa, where the company is based, to Kathmandu for retailing through a dealer in Jorpati. They were carrying 154 cylinders.
However, the locals were foiled as police intervened immediately. “We took the vehicles under our control and handed them over to Bhaktapur District Administration Office at 4 p.m.,” said SP Narayan Khadka of Metropolitan Police Range Bhaktapur.
The police could intervene on time as NLPGIA officials had informed them in advance of possible trouble on the road.
When the police tried to take the vehicles to the district administration the locals demanded that the gas be sold to them.
When the police refused, the crowd pelted stones and the situation turned tense. Police had to drive the vehicles away forcibly.
Scarcity of LPG along with other petroleum products hit the market a month ago after Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) failed to import enough fuel, citing mounting oil losses.
The growing shortage of fuel, especially cooking gas, has sent consumers into panic as the Bhaktapur incidents show.
“This is a dangerous trend,” said Mali, adding, “As most of the companies supplying LPG in Kathmandu are based outside the Valley, possible eruption of similar incidents could further worsen the supply situation in the Valley,” he added.
Meanwhile, NOC Spokesperson Mukunda Dhungel appealed to consumers to refrain from such activities.
He said NOC has instructed companies to go to Haldiya refinery so that they could bring in 1,000 tons of LPG every day. “Once the supply from Haldiya starts to enter the country, the situation will ease in 15 days,” he stated.
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