DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Oct 20: The dealers and suppliers of the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the city have created artificial shortage of the gas to sell it at inflated rates.

A cylinder with 11-kg of LPG was being sold at the rate of Rs350 to Rs400 in the city.

The record obtained from the eight dealers of various companies puts the consumption figure of the LPG in the city at 60,000 gas cylinders a month.

The people of the area had been complaining about the artificial shortage of the gas for they had to pay more, but the district government had turned a deaf ear to the problem.