Van blaze victim's son dies too

Despite ban, public service vehicle owners continue using LPG, CNG

HYDERABAD:

A day after death of his father, who was fatally burnt in the December 9 incident of fire in a passenger CNG van during refueling in Hyderabad, 12 years old Ali Jan Abbassi also succumbed to his injuries on Monday in a hospital. The deceased and his father Abdul Majeed Abbassi, who passed away during life saving treatment on the night of December 13, were travelling in the van which caught fire.

They were returning from Karachi to Hyderabad when the vehicle burnt reportedly from a fire which broke out from one of the CNG cylinders during the refueling at Bismillah CNG station. Abbassi worked as a photographer in the public relations wing of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO). He was laid to rest after his Namaz-e-Janaza in HESCO's Water Wing Colony in Hyderabad on Sunday.

The December 9 fire incident was the second identical instance of explosion since November 24 occurring in a CNG van at a CNG station in Hyderabad during refilling. The latter left eight persons injured and two of them have so far died while the former had wounded only the vehicle's driver.

Although the Hyderabad district police have registered an FIR of the second incident on the state's complaint, no action is visible against the public service vehicles (PSVs) using dangerous fuels like LPG and CNG in blatant violation of a ban imposed by Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA). The Regional Transport Authority (RTA) Hyderabad, which is responsible for checking PSVs, appears indifferent to the situation.

In reaction to the November 24 incident, the RTA Secretary Hyderabad Saleem Memon started a crackdown against vans using CNG cylinders on November 26. A statement issued in the evening later that day stated that two cylinders were seized and Rs62,000 fines were imposed on vans plying on Hyderabad-Matiari stretch of the National Highway. Since that day no information about action against vehicles illegally using CNG and LPG in the PSVs has emerged from the RTA.

A transport official, who requested anonymity, argued that the transporter mafia are too influential to be regulated by the transport department which are always dependent on the district police for enforcing the law. Meanwhile, in the FIR registered at Naseem Nagar check post of Qasimabad police station, the van's owner and three staffers of the CNG station have been nominated under sections 285, 286 and 336-B of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

Section 336-B pertains to punishment for injury caused by corrosive substance. It brings punishment of life imprisonment or 14 years along with Rs1 million fine. The two other sections, which are concerned with negligent conduct with respect to fire, combustible matter or explosive substance, are punishable with up to six months jail term and a paltry Rs3,000 fine.

The FIR, registered on complaint of ASI Arif Ali Channar, narrates that an 18-seater van heading to Hyderabad from Karachi stopped at Bismillah CNG station for refueling at around 11 pm on December 9. The complainant maintained that the van caught fire because the station's staff did not follow proper CNG refueling procedure. Interestingly, there is no mention of the illegality committed both by the station and the van by filling CNG in a PSV.