MARDAN: The district administration has failed to check prices of CNG as owners of filling stations have been overcharging consumers without any fear.

Residents of Mardan told this correspondent on Sunday that the district administration was not taking action against the CNG station owners responsible for charging more than the fixed price of gas.

Ihanul Haq, a local trader, said that the government had fixed the CNG price at Rs76 per kilogramme, but owners and staff of some filling stations had been charging Rs85.82 per kilogramme.

He alleged that the relevant authorities were hand in glove with the owners of filling stations because they felt no fear of action by the government.

Arshid Khan, a resident, said that it seemed as if there was no government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as owners of CNG filling stations were fixing gas price at will.

‘‘We are always deceived by politicians because they make tall claims during their election campaigns of taking action against looters, but they forget all such promises whenever they come into power,” he lamented.

An employee at one of the filling stations said that they had been charging more because of running generators in their filling station in case of power loadshedding.

He claimed that expenses of filling stations had increased manifold while running generators to provide CNG to the consumers.

When contacted, deputy commissioner Imran Hamid Sheikh said that he was unaware of overcharging at the CNG stations in the city.

However, he said that he would send a team to check CNG prices at gas filling stations in the city. He said that the government would take action against those found violating gas prices fixed by the relevant department.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2016