Gas company supplying cylinders to influential people

KATHMANDU, April 12: A surprise inspection by the Parliamentary Good Governance and Monitoring Committee at Nepal Gas depot on Tuesday found the LPG dealer distributing gas cylinders to those who have access to power centers and higher-ups from its refilling center at a time when the general public is facing hard time getting even a cylinder of cooking gas.

A team of the committee on Tuesday caught red-handed a vehicle carrying seven cylinders of gas being supplied by the company to a businessman. On further query, it was revealed that those seven cylinders were being supplied to former president of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Chandi Raj Dhakal."We found that only the commoners have problems getting gas cylinders. People with access to power centers and higher-ups are getting gas cylinders as much as they need," said Mohan Singh Rathoor, chairman of the monitoring committee that included four other lawmakers and officials of the concerned authorities.

The inspection team found the company supplying over 60 cylinders daily to people with good access to power centers from the refilling plant.

After the inspection team grilled representatives of the company, Rajendra Dangal, marketing manager of the company, admitted that the company was supplying over 60 gas cylinders per day to businessmen, politicians and other higher-ups based on personal connection.

Dangal informed that the Ministry of Supply and Nepal Oil Corporation provide lists of names to be provided with gas cylinders everyday, and based on the list, the company provides gas cylinders to those people from the centre.

Likewise, the company was also found not distributing gas cylinders in equal number to all its outlets. The inspection team found that the company was supplying over 6,000 cylinders each to its outlets at Anamnagar and New Baneshwar on a monthly basis while the company was distributing less than 500 gas cylinders to its other outlets in the capital.

Umesh Adhikari arrived at the refilling center from Surya Binayak on Tuesday to buy a gas cylinder and he was waiting at the main gate for hours for his turn.

"The company has not supplied gas cylinders in our area for over a month. So, I was forced to come here as one of my friends working in the centre said he could manage a gas for me," he said.

The committee confiscated the vehicle carrying seven cylinders and took it to the Kathmandu District Administration Office for necessary action.

Chairman of the committee Rathoor said that the committee will carry out similar monitoring in refilling centers of other gas companies so as to discourage black marketing of cooking gas.

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