Fire dept orders inquiry into alleged LPG pilfering

THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
The Director of Fire and Emergency services, on Friday, ordered an inquiry into the incident allegedly involving the pilfering of LPG from cylinders which led to one of the drivers involved getting severe burn injuries.
Director Ashok Menon issued a memorandum to the Deputy Director of Fire of the South Zone requesting a detailed inquiry, the result of which is to be reported to the office of the director before May 9.
Menon's memorandum comes after NGO GOACAN wrote to him last week after a report appeared in "The Goan" about the driver who suffered burn injuries and was admitted in the ICU of a private hospital.
The driver, Farooq, from Himachal Pradesh, is in the employment of Shidhivinayak Transport, a company which transports LPG gas cylinder loads from the Bharat Petroleum bottling plant at Verna to the respective Bharat Gas LPG dealers.
According to information received, on April 24, Farooq was allegedly involved in pilfering gas from the LPG cylinders and suffered burn injuries after the operation led to an accident.
When the Verna police took a statement from the driver about the accident, he told the police that he got the burn injuries due to an accident while cooking, Verna PI told "The Goan." There had been no complaint registered with the Verna police, who started investigating the matter after taking suo moto cognisance of the case.
Allegedly, efforts are on to suppress this matter, because of the racket going on in pilfering almost four kgs of LPG from the regular 14.2 kg cylinders. The drivers involved are reported to live in Verna, close to the bottling plant.
"The Goan" had reported around two years ago, how illegal devices were used to transfer gas from one cylinder to the other after which the second cylinder was then resold.
Unsuspecting housewives often do not immediately check the seal of the LPG cylinder and are unaware of the racket taking place.