A senior officer from the FGDO said they would conduct surprise checks on all the gas agencies in the district and present a report to the OMCs soon. “We want to check whether the distribution system is in place and the clients are attended to, according to the booking,” the officer said.

The supply to these agencies and the waiting list in all the agencies will be presented in the report.

The last fortnight has seen severe shortage of domestic gas cylinders in the city with many groups in the city protesting against this shortage. The officers, said that the oil companies had enough supply and the shortage was likely because of misuse of domestic gas cylinders in commercial establishments as well as panic booking. Officers from the FGDO said that Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) had pumped in 7,500 cylinders more in the last two weeks to address the shortage. According to officers, they usually supply 30,000 cylinders daily and were pumping in more supplies as well as had their staff working on Sundays. “The misuse of cylinders in commercial establishments is a major concern with the prices having shot up for commercial cylinders,” said the officer. Raids were being conducted by the department as well. Meanwhile, HPCL officers said they had no shortage and this was only because of panic booking.