MULTAN: Unchecked public vehicles posing life threat to masses by using Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) despite ban on its use in public transport as it could turn into mishaps but the department concerned playing the role of a silent spectator.
A large number of APV passenger vans, wagons, auto-rickshaws and other private passenger vehicles using LPG without any fear. The sale of LPG in continued in the city through hidden points at back side of Vehari Chowk wagon stands and the adjacent areas of general bus stands. Most of the passengers avoid travelling through the LPG user vehicles but they have no choice to reach home without such risk.
Talking to APP here on Saturday, a citizen namely Arshad Ali said that almost all passenger wagons and APVs using the LPG openly but no one paying focus on the issue related to public safety. He said that he usually feel smell of LPG while travelling through any public transport and complained to the staff of the transport but they refused of using LPG. He said that he had been travelling on the public transport from last seven years but no one seen checking the vehicles at any point.
He said that should a proper mechanism to control sale of LPG and strict action must be taken against the vehicles using LPG putting public lives on risk. He said that dozens of incidents have been reported in the past in which many people lost their lives but there was still no control on it by the department concerned.
Another citizen namely Farhat Shah said that the district regional transport authority (RTA) must pay special focus on the issue and launch a comprehensive crackdown against the vehicles using LPG instead of doing paper formalities. He said that the people involved in sale of LPG must be treated with iron hands in order to prevent any untoward incident, Farhat demanded.
The spokesman of Punjab Highways Patrol (PHP) Rauf Gilani said that strict action was being taken against the public vehicles using LPG. He said that various incidents have been reported in the past in which vehicles caught fire due to LPG leakage causing into death of people. He said that most of the vehicles were using LPG in CNG cylinder which was not an easy task to find by the PHP officials.
When contacted City Traffic Police (CTP) Spokesman Muhammad Adnan, he said that CTP was not only issuing challans to LPG users but also impounding vehicles over the violation. He said that it was clear policy of CTP that no one would be allowed to put public lives at risk. He however, maintained that District Regional Transport Authority (RTA) was responsible to stop sale of LPG in public transport.
A driver namely Ghulam Shabir informed that he used LPG twice or thrice a week and saved Rs 500 because LPG was not costly as compare to CNG or petrol. He said that he converted the vehicles from LPG to petrol before any check point. He said that prices of petrol have been increased so it was not possible to offer transportation of people on cheap fare by using petrol or Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
