SHILLONG, JAN 3: The East Khasi hills administration on Thursday warned gas agencies to adhere to the laid down procedures with regard to the booking and delivery of the LPG cylinders to consumers, or face penal action under the Essential Commodities Act.
The warning comes in the wake of reported violation of booking and delivery procedures by gas agencies resulting in a lot of inconvenience to consumers. “All the gas agencies of IOC are directed to follow the new procedure. Refill and delivery should be given within 48 hours from the time of booking. The delivery of refills must be on done on the basis of seniority of booking,” said the East Khasi Hills deputy commissioner Sanjay Goyal in an order issued on Thursday.
The order also said home delivery of cylinders must be done at the customer’s door steps, and any extension of delivery point must have the prior approval of the district administration.
As per the new procedure, a customer can book a refill from the next day of their last delivery, and the refilled cylinder must be delivered within 48 hours. This applies to both the subsidized as well as non-subsidized cylinders.
The new rule also says that no booking is required for double cylinder connections (DBC), and there is no ban on new connections.
Given that there is a huge delivery backlog, the district administration in consultation with the IOC has decided that those customers who do not get their refills within 15 days of booking can collect their refilled cylinders from the godown at the godown price.
For deliveries from the godowns, the home delivery charge of Rs.15 has to be deducted as rebate for non-home delivery case and an additional amount of Rs.17 as special charge for hills should not to be considered.
The rate for home delivery of subsidized domestic cylinder is Rs 435, and the godown rate is Rs 403 for non-subsidised domestic cylinders. The gas agencies have also been directed to place sufficient manpower in their respective go-downs to facilitate the godown delivery to intended consumers.
In no case the distributors’ filled godown stock closing on any particular day should be in excess of 100 cylinders unless it has no backlog. Delivery boys must carry portable weighing machines and leak detectors and they must also be in uniforms and deliver cylinders only after checking weight and leakage.
Gven that some of the agencies are defaulting in placing the funds with the bottling plants, the new rule says that an uninterrupted and sufficient funds must be maintained in the account of the distributors for uninterrupted supply of loads from the bottling plants. Customers are also requested to first ascertain the availability of the stock from stock board of the agency before going to the godown. (By Our Reporter)
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