The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Illegal LPG refilling unit unearthed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 07, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Illegal LPG refilling unit unearthed

N. Ravi Kumar

After a raid on outhouse in Mylapore

CHENNAI: A team of Civil Supplies CID and Indian Oil Corporation officials on Saturday raided a dingy outhouse in a residential locality at Mylapore, which was allegedly used to refill the highly inflammable Liquefied Petroleum Gas.

A refilling unit was unearthed on Balakrishna Street in the same area in July 2005.

But unlike last time when several heavily subsidised LPG cylinders were found at the unit — the gas from them was allegedly transferred to cylinders marketed by private companies — Saturday's raid did not result in any major seizure of domestic cylinders of national oil companies.

While Civil Supplies CID Inspector R. Murugan, who led the team, said nearly 60 cylinders of private companies were found, S. Sampath Kumar, manager (LPG), Indian Oil Corporation Area Office, said a 14.2-kg cylinder of another national oil company was also found.

However, the officials did not rule out the possibility of the unit being used to transfer the subsidised gas to the private cylinders, as the official seals (plastic cover) used on the regulator of fresh cylinders by national oil companies were found at the unit, according to V.N. Parameswaran, Deputy Manager, IOC.

A number of equipment and crude devices allegedly used in the refilling, were also found.

The officials said that going by the seizure of a large number of cylinders, some of whose outlets were connected by pipes and placed facing each other, it appeared that the gas was transferred from a filled private cylinder to another that was empty.

Besides the issues of underweight cylinders and the possibility of misuse of the domestic LPG, what caused concern to the officials was the safety hazard posed by the unit. A small fire could result in a major catastrophe in the vicinity that had a petrol pump.

Three persons were arrested in this connection. Civil Supplies CID Superintendent of Police N. Kamini said many more such joint raids would be conducted as decided at a meeting last month.

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