Bhubaneswar: The Khordha District Civil Supplies Department on Saturday seized 229 domestic LPG cylinders belonging to three major oil marketing companies during a raid on an alleged illegal storage facility in Bhubaneswar.
Acting on complaints of illegal storage and black marketing of cooking gas, a team of civil supplies officials raided an abandoned asbestos-roofed house at Basant Sahu Chhak in Kalinga Nagar, falling under the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) area.
The seized cylinders included 90 Indane cylinders of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), 38 Bharat Gas cylinders of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and 101 Hindustan Petroleum (HP) cylinders.
Officials also seized two gas-filling motors, pressure pipes, cylinder caps and plastic seals bearing the branding of different oil companies from the premises.
The raid followed complaints from local residents about difficulties in procuring cooking gas cylinders. It was conducted on the advice of Khordha Collector Amrit Rituraj.
Preliminary investigation suggests that an unscrupulous trader had been procuring LPG cylinders from various distributors and consumers with the intention of selling them in the open market at inflated prices.
District Civil Supplies Officer Gyanendra Mishra said the possibility of involvement of certain LPG distributors in the illegal operation was also being investigated.
The seized cylinders have been handed over to nearby authorised distributors — Soumya Indane (IOCL), Pramod Bharat Gas (BPCL) and Lingaraj Gas Agency (HPCL).
The operation was conducted under the direction of Collector Amrit Rituraj and the direct supervision of Mishra. Additional Supply Officer Rohit Das, Assistant Civil Supplies Officers Himanshu Sahu and Himanshu Shekhar Dutta, other civil supplies officials and personnel of the Commissionerate Police participated in the raid.
