Crackdown ordered against illegal fuel sale

Rawalpindi District Coordination Officer issues notice to 500 illegal petrol agencies

RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Civil Defense Department, on the directives of Punjab government, has launched a crackdown against illegal petrol and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) decanters, said Chief Civil Defense Officer Talib Hussain on Sunday.

Talking to the media, he said that the department has issued challans to over 452 illegal agencies while 32 FIRs were also lodged in respective police stations this year.

Hussain added that they conducted 600 raids in different areas of the district and action was taken against 452 rule violators.

A large number of illegal petrol and LPG agencies were sealed while cases were also registered against their owners on the special instruction of the Rawalpindi District Coordination Officer (DCO).  As many as 500 illegal petrol agencies have also been issued final notices under which the owners were directed to stop the illegal business immediately otherwise strict action per the law would be taken.

Hussain said that the Punjab government has directed the Civil Defense Department to launch action against the illegal LPG decanting in the district. He said that the department took this step under the Petroleum Act 1934 Rule No. 1971 and LPG Protection and Distribution Act 2001.

He said the operation would continue and the shops of the violators would be sealed while FIRs would also be lodged.

He added that illegal petroleum agencies, depots, mini fuel pumps and illegal LPG decanting shops were causing a loss to the national exchequer and at the same time endangering human life and property, hence the operation was launched in public interest.

Moreover, the Civil Defence Department has also launched an operation to check the installation of fire extinguishers at petrol pumps and CNG stations. Some 450 petrol pumps operating without fire extinguishers were challaned and fines worth Rs1.2 million were imposed on the rule violators.

The Civil Defence teams raided petrol pumps and CNG stations to check fire safety arrangements, Hussain said, adding that heir teams inspected safety measures while challans were issued for insufficient firefighting equipment.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2019.