Mandatory checking of kitchen and gas equipments to begin from today

A CORRESPONDENT

SILCHAR, Jan 4: As per the directions of Ministry of Petroleum and tural Gas, mandatory checking of gas and kitchen equipments will begin from today. Trained mechanics, appointed by the distributors, will visit the houses of consumers to check if any of the equipments is malfunctioning. The consumers will have to pay Rs.75 as charges for each connection to the mechanics. This was briefed to the media by Indian Oil Corporation officials in a press-meet held in the premises of their office here today. Those present in the briefing included A K Saxe, sales officer, D Biswas, deputy mager, Gautom Kundu, Sunda Sinha, Salim Choudhury, Samim Alam Barbhuiya, B Guha, Biplob Kumar Goswami and Sourindra Kumar Bhattacharjee.

D Biswas said the gas and kitchen equipments must be checked at least once every two years. If the equipments are not working properly it might lead to disasters consequences. The distributors have done public liability insurance for their godowns. Besides, every consumer has also been jointly insured by the Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hisdustan Petroleum Corporation. A K Saxe said if a regulator is malfunctioning, it will be replaced by the distributors free of cost. He further said while purchasing any equipment from the authorized agencies, the consumers must ask for a cash receipt.

On being asked how long will it take for the process to be completed in Barak Valley, A K Saxe said there are around 2.8 lakh connections in the valley. The mechanics will visit the houses in a phase-wise manner. He further said that the consumers can purchase any equipments from the corporation at recommended selling price. Saxe urged upon the public, not to purchase kitchen and gas equipments from uuthorized sellers as most of these are faulty. Salim Choudhury said LPG is one of the safest, economical and eco-friendly healthy cooking fuel. Besides domestic usage it is often used in various industrial and commercial establishments.

Salim Choudhury further said that they consumers should purchase Suraksha LPG Hose manufactured by LERC and BIS approved manufacturers. It is manufactures under stringent quality checks. The Hose has a lifespan of 5 years and is crack-proof, even rodents cannot cut through steel braided wire mesh. D Biswas said for availing themselves of LPG connection, a customer should be in possession of an ISI marked hot plate and rubber tube. All Indane distributor keep a range of standard, thermal efficient and fuel saving green label hot plates. However, it is not mandatory that consumers have to purchase it from the distributor only. In case a consumer has an ISI marked hot plate, the distributor shall check it in the consumers premises against a nomil payment of Rs.150.