Even as the Bhosari police remain undecided about filing a case of negligence following the death of two women in Bhosari due to gas explosion, the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd seems to have taken up the issue of safety in all seriousness with both customers and their gas agencies. As reported by Newsline on Tuesday, the BPCL has already issued an advisory to the customers to take necessary precautions while handling LPG cylinders.

On Tuesday, BPCL said during a survey they have found that customers in such cases are largely at fault. “Not only the cusotmers continue the use of faulty tubes for months together, they also forget to switch off the regulators,” J Vedagiri, terittory manager of BPCL said. In 95 per cent accident, said Vedagiri, it was found that customers had forgotten to switch off the valve.

“Customers generally take this aspect casual. Switching off regulators is a must to prevent any kind of gas leak. It’s very simple and easy...but nobody bothers,” he said, adding that the survey was conducted over a period of three years.

Advocating switching off regulators after every cooking, Vedagiri said if this is not possible customers should at least shut the regulator at the end of the day.

“People believe that since nothing has happened for years, there is no chance of it happening in future. So they don’t care. It might not have happened in 20 years, but might happenly suddenly one day and then everything will be over,” he said. “Therefore, we strongly advocate that customers should shut off regulators after every cooking,” he added.

Vedagiri said BPCL recommends the use of Suraksha Rubber Hose which is available at all distributors. “Customers should not purchase the Surakasha tubes from open market as there are chances of they buying duplicate ones. These tubes are available at distributors of all the three companies, BPCL, HPCL and IOC,” he said.

These tubes are 1.5 metre long and last for at least five years Kunal Shah, owner of Gujar Gas Enterprises, Bhosari, which had provided the LPG cylinder at victims’ residence, said,”The rubber hose had cracks which resulted in the gas leak.” Shah said they regularly conduct inspection of cylinders at customers’ residence. “Now we will launch a consumer awareness campaign after consulting BPCL,” he said. The Gujar Gas Enterprises has 30,000 customers and there are two other agencies in Bhosari.