AGARTALA, May 6 (TIWN): The Tripura government will start cracking down on black marking of domestic LPG cylinders in the state. The enforcement wng of the food and supplies department will raid illegal godown, said minister for food and civil supplies Bhanulal Saha.

“Officials in food and supplies department wiil soon crack down on the distributors of LPG cylinders hand in glove with the black marketers” said the minister while addressing a press meet here at civil secretariat today afternoon.

He said that many eateries use domestic sylinders for commercial purposes. This is illegal. Raid wll be conducted to stop the black marketing of cylinders,” says Mr. Saha.    The minster said that vigilance committee was recently set up to investigate into the issue.”

The minister said that 3.40 lakhs  registered LPG consumers have an average need of 2,900 MT of cooking gas on a monthly basis. Average requirement of LPG cylinders stand at 2,04326 currently, he stated. The Bishalgarh bottling plant in Sepahijala district is currently meeting 86 percent of the requirement and the rest 16 percent was supposed to be supplied from Silchar bottling plant. The latter is reported to be having problems since January this year.

He said that steady deficit of LPG bullet supply to the state from Silchar bottling plant in Assam for the past four months left the state with chronic deficit status of 16 percent of total LPG requirement of the state.

The minister said that crisis tightened after the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) suspended operation at the Kalagachia bottling plant at Mohanpur sub-division in West Tripura district from November, last year.

He added that the Department laid stress in a recent meeting with all major gas agencies to ensure 100 percent home delivery to individual consumers. “We are hoping home delivery would help reduce malpractices and off-grid trading”, he said. The minister warned that strict punitive actions would be taken against anybody found guilty of conducting errant practices with LPG cylinder distribution at the end of the probe.