Department of Standard and Metrology (DoSM) had announced of standardizing the quality of regulators after its inspections found the market being flooded with substandard regulators, which are unsafe to use. [break]
“As the fundamental reason behind such anomaly was lack of standards, we have now finalized the standards for regulator,” said Romi Manandhar, acting director general of DoSM.
She told Republica that the department will soon get it endorsed by the Standard Council and enforce the standards. The department has called the meeting of Standard Council on Sunday and officials expressed hope it will endorse the standards soon.
Officials at the DoSM disclosed that the technical committee that drafted the standards has mainly taken the standards adopted by the Bureau of Indian Standards.
Once enforced, local manufacturers as well as importers of regulators will need to get their products certified by the department.
“After inspecting their plants and products, we will issue NS Mark to local manufacturers, allowing them to use it in their products,” said a DoSM official. The department will then conduct regular inspection to make sure that the industry is strictly adhering to the set standards.
Importers too will need to get their imports certified in batches and will be allowed to sell them in the market only if they pass the DoSM set standards.
So far, Nepal had no standards for regulators. As a result, Nepal Oil Corporation and DoSM have been informally accepting Indian standards certification, recognizing regulators certified by Bureau of Indian Standards.
As the consumption of LPG soared as a popular household fuel, importers have been sourcing regulators from other countries as well. About half a dozen companies are manufacturing regulators in Nepal.
But in absence of proper market inspection and monitoring, substandard overseas products are easily finding their way into the Nepali market. Amid lack of stringent guidelines, even local companies are not serious about producing quality regulators.
Following such findings, the government about a year ago allowed traders to sell only those regulators that bear Indian certification mark of ISI, imposing ban on the sale of uncertified products.
The ban was imposed mainly after UCPN Maoist member od the Constituent Assembly Ram Kumari Yadav lost her life in an accident caused by leakage of LPG, apparently due to use of substandard regulator.
With the enforcement of local standards, DoSM officials expressed hope the anomalies seen in the market will end. Most importantly, it will also empower DoSM to penalize and shut down operations of the firms that are found flouting the standards.
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