The concerned inhabitants of a residential building in the Defence View area of Karachi have appealed to the area police to take immediate action against a shop beneath their homes brazenly involved in filling cylinders with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in a hazardous manner.
The residents have submitted their application to the station house officer (SHO) of the Baloch Colony police station, in whose jurisdiction the LPG decanting service has been illegally continuing in a shop, endangering the lives of the locals.
The applicants have urged the SHO to take immediate action and seal the shop involved in the LPG decanting service on the ground floor of the residential building at the address CC19 in the Defence View Phase 1 area.
One of the applicants mentioned that his relatives had suffered injuries in the recent blast at a CNG cylinder filling shop in Hyderabad. Over two dozen people have died after the twin blasts that occurred in a shop of gas cylinders in Hyderabad’s densely-populated Preetabad area on May 30.
Copies of the Defence View residents’ application were also sent to the Sindh governor, the Sindh Rangers director general, and the Sindh inspector general of police. Meanwhile, Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar has asked all the deputy commissioners posted in the province to take action against illegal LNG and LPG shops in their respective jurisdictions. The home department has sent letters to all the DCs in this regard.
The Home Minister asked all the DCs to ensure that illegal LNG and LPG filling shops were relocated outside the populated areas of cities. Such shops should be duly inspected by the relevant officials to confiscate substandard cylinders. All the LPG and LNG shops should adhere to the safety guidelines and precautions imposed by the federal government for the decanting service.
The home minister told the DCs that LNG and LPG shops should not exist in busy markets and residential areas. The DCs have been told to visit the decanting shops on a weekly basis, and share weekly compliance reports with the home department. When the DC of the East district, under whose jurisdiction the residential building is located, was contacted, he responded that he would look into the matter.