Consumer court imposes fine on gas utility

The East consumer court imposed on Thursday a fine of Rs100,000 on the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) on a citizen’s complaint of water seeping into gas pipeline.

Judicial magistrate of the East consumer court, Javed Ali Korejo, heard citizen Umair Hussain’s complaint and thereafter, announced the reserved judgment on the matter. The court stated that if the gas utility failed to pay the fine, the amount of the penalty was to be doubled.

It directed the relevant persons to forward a copy of the judgment to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority.

Before issuing the judgment, judicial magistrate Korejo noted that several other citizens were facing the same problem.

According to Hussain, water has been seeping into the pipeline supplying gas to his house in New Karachi since 2018, and due to this, he has to use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders. He decried that using LPG cylinders not just cost him financially, but also posed a safety risk.

“Yet, the SSGC administration doesn’t seem to care much,” he lamented. “I am having from stress and anxiety due to the incompetence of the administration.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2021.