Users of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) in cylinders at various Upazilas of Rajshahi district have complained of supplying them LPG cylinders with less in weight and some filled with water. As a result, common gas consumers are being deceived by the gas cylinder supplying authorities.
It is alleged, each regular filled cylinder is supposed to contain at least 12.5 kg of LP gas but dishonest gas supplying agents and CNG processing units were filling only 9 to 10 kg of gas in the cylinder and realising the price of a 12.5 kg full cylinder of gas from the consumers. Because, in most cases there was no way to weigh a cylinder filled with gas, users of LPG cylinders remained unaware of such dishonest trading by the LPG suppliers.
According to sources, the use of cylinder LPG has been increased recently for domestic and commercial purposes in various upazila and suburban areas of Rajshahi. A huge number of LPG cylinders are now used in Naohata of Paba upazila, Mohanopur Sadar. Kantakhali sadar, Charghat sadar, bagaha sadar and Mohanganj of Mohanopur upazila, Godagari Sadar, Rajabari, Premtali of Godagari upazila, Bhabniganj bazaar, Taherpur municipal area, Puthia Sadar Sardah Bazaar and Baneswar Bazaar areas of district. Even in many rural areas of the district, housewives were using LP cylinder gas instead of using firewood and kerosene for cooking purposes. It is learnt around 30,000 to 35,000 cylinders of LPG are used in every upazila of the district per month nowadays and the number of such LPG users are in the increase day by day.
Earlier in 2012 to 2015, the price of a filled cylinder gas was tk 800 which has now increased to tk 1,200. Though in 2017 the price of cylinder gas jumped to TK 1,500, but it was decreased during 2018-2019 to Tk 950 to 1,000. But in recent days in 2021, the price of it has been further increased to Tk. 1,100 per cylinder.
Belal Hossain, a cylinder gas user of Bhabaniganj Bazaar in Bagmara informed, recently he purchased a cylinder of gas at taka 1,100. The supplier of the gas ensured him the cylinder carrying 12 kg of LPG But after using several days, the cylinder was empty. Samiul Haque, an operator of Luna Petroleum agency in Godagari informed, the LPG cylinder is directly supplied from various LPG filling stations in Dhaka and Chittagong. It is not possible for any local petroleum dealers to steal gas or add water in any cylinder. He went to the gas supplier with the cylinder and weighed that. Still, there was three to four kilogramme of gas but that was not burning. The supplier of the cylinder said there might be some liquid byproduct of gas that was leftover at the bottom of the cylinder. Mahfuza, another NGO worker of Bagmara, said she purchased a cylinder of gas from a local dealer but after using it for a few days, the gas emptied but she usually uses a cylinder full of gas for a month. She also said the gas was not burning but there was gas inside the cylinder that is why she went to the dealer with the cylinder. The dealer then said he was getting such complaints of shortage of gas in some cylinders and some are mixed with water and gas.
Abul Kalam Azad, a former professor of premtali College under, he has also noticed LPG cylinder weighing less than the actual weight. Taking the opportunity of innocence of the consumers, some LP Gas suppliers were cheating them. Abdullah Al Mamun, assistant commissioner (land) of Bagmara, said encouraging people of using LPG is a state policy. Any irregularities and corruption in this connection will be resisted strictly. The mobile team will soon visit the LPG shops, inspect the cylinders and taka legal action against the corrupt traders.