Newmai News Network Imphal, August 30 The State Government of Manipur is rolling up its sleeves to address black-marketing of cooking gas (LPG). Towards this effort, the State Government convened an interactive session today where concerned authorities and LPG distributors participated. Manipur Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Karam Shyam chaired the interactive session of CAF&PD officials, IOC officials and LPG distributors at the Conference Hall, Old Secretariat. The interactive session was held to find mechanism to control the sale of LPG cylinders in the black market. During the meeting all the stakeholders agreed to jointly work together to tackle the issue of the sale of LPG cylinders in the black market. Minister Karam Shyam said the sale of LPG cylinders in the black market can be controlled if all the stakeholders work together. He also said that, the sale of rice in the open market under NFSA(National Food Security Act) and SK Oil (kerosene) has been minimised due to the join efforts of the stakeholders. Benefits given by the Government under various schemes are now reaching the target beneficiaries, he added. The Minister further appealed to the public to cooperate with the steps taken by the Government and the officials in bringing a positive change in the system. He also said the public must help the authorities by giving constructive criticism. SI Singh, IOC (Indian Oil Corporation) Imphal Divisional Retail Sales Manager and State Level Coordinator said IOC is ready to assist the State Government to control the sale of LPG cylinders. He also encouraged LPG consumers to do their refill booking through SMS service and IVRS (Interactive Voice recording System). Probin Baruah, DGM LPG Operations, Guwahati said from September onwards a concrete planning will begin to eliminate backlog by October. He also said by January 2018, the Sekmai bottling plant will be filled up with 1,800 mt (metric tonne) of LPG. To improve bulk-loading constraints, a loading station at Guwahati and downloading facility at Sekmai will be commissioned in September. He also said, to reduce the supply requirement, some distributors and transporters will bring LPG cylinders from Silchar and Dimapur.
- Kailun, IGP (Zone- II) & IGP (AP/Ops) assured to give all assistance including increasing vigilance on national highways to check unauthorised movement of trucks carrying LPG cylinders.