Consumers ask for better supervision
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, January 19 2016:
Some consumers of Thoubal Gas Agency have sought immediate attention of both the IOC and the LPG distributors' association for improvement in refill distributing by the particular agency.
The consumers told The Sangai Express that the distributor was claiming to have cleared all bookings done in December last year or earlier whereas in reality the distributor is yet to clear bookings done in the month of October last year.
They said that many of them have just received only two refills from Thoubal Gas Singjamei this financial year.
The distributor distributed refills today and only those consumers who made their bookings on September 7 and earlier were eligible to taking refills.
The latest date of booking has progressed as compared to the previous time refills were delivered.
As such there is a strong suspicion that the distributor has been committing several anomalies and irregularities.
Given this possibility, the IOC and the distributors' association need to investigate the matter, they said.
According to official records, Thoubal Gas Agency has delivered refill to all those consumers who made their bookings on December 22 or earlier.
The agency has around 9115 active consumers and it is distributing 147.21 refills in a day on the average.
After December 22, 6607 consumers have made their bookings and they are awaiting delivery of refills.
However, its performance is rated poor.
Information received from the IOC said that Thoubal Gas Agency was banned for five days for not allowing electronic booking.
The ban has been lifted and LPG is supplied to the distributor on priority basis.
The performance of NQ Pallel Indane Agency, Chandel district is also rated poor.
Nonetheless, it has delivered refills to all consumers who made their bookings on January 15 or earlier as per official records.
Accordingly, the distributor has a backlog of just a week.
The distributor has been distributing just 6.43 refills.
After January 1,570 consumers have made their bookings.
The distributor has already distributed eight refills each to some consumers while 49 consumers have been refilled seven refills each.
49 other consumers too have received six refills each while 45 consumers have been issued five refills each.
Meanwhile, it is reported that IOC has completed all arrangements to introduce Indane cooking gas refill booking through IVRS and SMS.
It is expected that introduction of round the clock refill booking system through IVRS and SMS would benefit consumers quite a lot.