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High Court Relief for LPG Consumers

  • The Patna high court on Tuesday directed major domestic LPG providers, including the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited ( HPCL), to seek instructions from their respective companies with regard to booking LPG cylinders via manual procedure. This would be in addition to the present Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) and SMS facility earlier launched in the state in 2011.
  • A division bench of the high court, comprising Justice T Meena Kumari and Justice Gopal Prasad, passed the order while hearing a writ petition filed in this regard by one Vikas Mohan. The petitioner had stated in his PIL that the consumers were facing immense difficulties in booking gas cylinders through IVRS and SMS.
  • The HC had earlier in 2011 issued notices to different LPG companies and the Union government for the inconvenience faced by the consumers in booking gas cylinders through IVRS and SMSes.Petitioner's counsel Mukeshwar Dayal told the court that the illiterate and poor were facing lots of hardship due to the IVRS system, wherein bookings are done through dialing number or sending SMSes. The court was also informed that this system was not sound as one faced difficulty in booking cylinders through SMS. Earlier, on August 8, 2011, a division bench of the HC, comprising Justice S K Katriar and Justice A Amanullah, while issuing notices to the two gas companies and the Union government, had said the poor people would not be allowed to suffer.
  • The court on Tuesday took strong exception to the stoppage of manual bookings and gave three weeks' time to the oil majors to seek necessary instructions from their respective companies in this regard.Incidentally, in a bid to provide relief to the LPG consumers who first have to struggle to book a cylinder and then wait endlessly to get it, the IOC on Tuesday introduced round-the-clock IVRS and SMS facility for LPG booking and other related services. The service was launched amidst much fanfare last year. Patna was the 11th city in the country to have this facility which would be later extended to the entire state.

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