MINGORA, Oct 19: The price of liquefied petroleum gas has recorded a sharp increase during the last few days in the district, causing a lot of problems to the area people.

Talking to Dawn, distributors of LPG cylinders claimed that policies of multinational companies were behind rise in gas prices as these MNCs had been selling furnace oil to the power generating companies.

The distributors said they were not responsible for the price-hike, in fact those involved in black-marketing were the real culprits.

Fazal Wahab, a representative of distributors, said distributors in Swat were bound to fix a rate in accordance with the purchasing prices of cylinders.

He said during the last few days the price of a 5kg cylinder had risen at least by Rs100.

He demanded of the district Nazim of Swat to take up the matter with the authorities of the federal government so that the consumers could be provided with gas cylinders at reasonable prices.

The distributors stressed that gas should be supplied to them on control rates on a permanent basis.

CEREMONY: NWFP Assembly Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan advocate will administer the oath to the newly-elected office-bearers of the Paramedical Association, Swat, here at the Nursing School on Monday at 10am.