LPG: Was safety compromised?

Tuesday 4th January, 2022

Litro and Laugfs have adduced new regulations governing their production processes to explain the prevailing cooking gas shortage. They would have us believe that they cannot maintain their production at the previous levels because they have to fill and distribute gas cylinders in conformity with the new standards set by the Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) and judicial guidelines. Laugfs Chairman W. K. H. Wegapitiya has been quoted by the media as saying that previously his company released as many as 40,000 to 50,000 cylinders of gas daily, but today the number has dropped to 10,000.

New regulations and standards may have caused a delay in the LPG production process, but they are certainly welcome because they are aimed at ensuring the safety of gas consumers. In fact, the SLSI should have stipulated those standards earlier, and the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) should have taken action to ensure that the gas companies abided by them.

As for the reasons Litro and Laugfs have given for the LPG shortage, a question that the CAA ought to ask them is whether they maintained high production levels previously at the expense of the safety standards which they have now been made to adhere to. What one gathers from their explanation at issue is that they just went on churning out cylinders of gas to meet the demand, and the measures they adopted to ensure the safety of their products were not adequate.

Now that the gas companies have admitted that their production has gone down due to the new safety regulations, a probe is called for to find out whether they compromised the safety of their products to increase their output thereby exposing the gas consumers to danger.

It is hoped that the gas companies will continue to be kept under the microscope for the sake of the public, and action will be taken to ensure that they will achieve their production targets without compromising safety.

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Danger to democracy

The much-delayed Provincial Council (PC) elections are not likely to be held in the foreseeable future. Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on electoral reform, Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, has said new laws will have to be made for the PC polls to be conducted, and the PC Elections (Amendment) Act of 2017 should be done away with for that purpose. The law in question was not made properly by the yahapalana government, he has said, blaming the JVP, the TNA, etc., for supporting it.

The country has been without elected PCs for years, and a lot of funds which would otherwise have been spent to maintain more than 400 provincial councillors who are a huge burden on the public have been saved. That is why the postponement of the PC polls has not become a political issue as such. However, the need for new laws and the abolition of the aforesaid amendment Act is not what prevents the government from conducting the PC elections.

The government lost no time in introducing the 20 Amendment to the Constitution to restore the President’s executive powers. It has mustered 157 votes for Budget 2022, and proved once again that it has a two-thirds majority in Parliament. So, introducing new laws to hold the PC polls should be child’s play for the government.

Why the government is not making a serious attempt to conduct the PC polls is its fear of elections. Its performance has been abysmal on almost all fronts, and the only achievement it can flaunt is the national vaccination drive, which is a huge success and should be appreciated. But man does not live by vaccine alone, and public resentment, resulting from the high cost of living, numerous shortages and the vulgar display of opulence by the rulers and their kith and kin, is palpable. An electoral contest is the last thing the government needs at this juncture. It has also announced its decision to postpone the local government elections by one year.

A government that fears elections is a danger to democracy.