May 25, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 08, 1428

LAHORE, May 24: More than 100 people were arrested for running unlawful business of decanting LPG from big cylinders into smaller ones in various city areas on Thursday, the first day of the crackdown launched by the City District Government of Lahore.

There are more than 2,000 decanting outlets in the city as most of the customers are owners of two-stroke rickshaws and some pick-ups being run on the LPG.

Teams of all the nine towns besides officials of the civil defence are conducting the operation being supervised by DCO Muhammad Ijaz, who is determined to continue the action till the eradication of the menace from the city.

Thirty-seven proprietors of the LPG decanting business were taken into custody from Ravi, 13 from Shalimar, 12 from Aziz Bhatti, 10 from Iqbal, eight from Data Gunj Bakhsh and seven from Nishtar towns, while three teams of civil defence arrested 15 shopkeepers from the Walled City, northern Lahore and Ravi Road areas.

Cases have also been registered against the accused in respective police stations, CDGL officials say, claiming backing of the provincial authorities for the operation.

Several attempts were made in the past to eliminate the menace but each time the CDGL had to back out under pressure from the powerful mafias of rickshaw union and traders of LPG.

The officials say that only seven companies in the city have licences for selling LPG whose commercial use has been strictly prohibited.

But the licence-holders, in violation of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) regulations, have sublet their distribution rights to more than 2,000 people.

The ugly business has claimed scores of lives in the recent past in several incidents of LPG cylinder explosion in the city. Property worth millions of rupees has also been damaged.

At least 29 people had been killed when three two-storey houses-cum-stores collapsed after scores of gas cylinders stored in one of them exploded in the thickly-populated Allama Iqbal Town two years ago.

More than 500 Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders were stored in one of the three houses near the Vegetable Market.

Eyewitnesses and police had said that the incident occurred during refilling of smaller gas cylinders from the bigger ones.

The blast was so powerful that the windows of adjacent houses were shattered. The shutters and some parts of a number of adjacent shops were also damaged after being hit by the gas cylinders. Several vehicles parked near these houses were also damaged.

Eyewitnesses said the rain a day before had saved several lives as people who used to sleep on the roof of their houses in the summer had gone inside their rooms otherwise flying cylinders would have caused more casualties.

In early 2006, five people were injured when an LPG cylinder exploded in a shop in Laxmi Chowk.