LAHORE, July 20: The district coordination officer (DCO) has given a one-week notice to shopkeepers to stop decanting and sale of substandard Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders.

The DCO directed all licensed shopkeepers to stop the sale of LPG cylinders with defective valves fabricated from sub-standard material immediately. The notice warned decanting shops set up on footpaths to wind up their business.

The DCO has ordered sealing of factories engaged in fabrication of sub-standard LPG cylinders in the provincial metropolis.

He wrote to the capital city police officer of Gujranwala to close the factories producing sub-standard gas cylinders.

He said a squad would raid the shops with LPG Distributors Association Chairman Irfan Khokhar and town municipal officers from next week and take stern action against those found selling sub-standard cylinders.

The DCO ordered a crackdown on the sale of substandard LPG cylinders as defective LPG cylinders had claimed 722 lives.