Over 30,000 piped gas consumers still holding on to LPG cylinders in Nashik

Nashik: Over 30,000 consumers in Nashik city have got Piped Natural Gas (PNG) connections at their homes, but most have still not surrendered their domestic LPG connections to the respective oil marketing companies.According to a senior official from the Maharashtra Natural Gas Limited (MNGL) that provides the piped gas to the consumers, the company had so far not instructed the consumers to surrender their cylinders. "We now have over 30,000 consumers whose connections are live, meaning they are getting the gas through the piped network system. During our process we take the deposit for the connections from the consumers after our basic infrastructure is provided to the respective building including installation of a service regulator. Thereafter, the connections are provided and monthly bills are generated," the official said.One of the consumers of the MNGL said, "I have two cylinder connections. I had no idea about the regulation of surrendering the connections. Given the current situation, I will retain one cylinder for life as who knows some day the MNGL system may develop some issues and leave its consumers to fend for themselves."The Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas issued a notification on Saturday which it said that any person having a PNG connection will not be allowed to retain a domestic LPG connection or take refills of LPG cylinders from government oil companies or their authorised distributors.Such consumers are required to surrender their LPG connection immediately. The order states that individuals who already have a PNG connection will also not be permitted to obtain a new LPG connection in the future. The oil marketing companies have been instructed not to issue any refills to these consumers.A senior official from one of the OMCs said they had 141 distributors in Nashik district and over 6 lakh consumers in Nashik city out of the over 10 lakh in the district. "Based on the orders we will now collate the information from the MNGL and block the refills at this point in time. Henceforth, they will not be allowed the refills anymore. Their deposits with the company will be returned once they surrender their connection," said the official.