Follow the code: DCO orders CNG, LPG dealers

Lahore District Coordination Officer Lahore Rizwan Mehboob held a meeting with CNG and LPG Business dealers at the Town Hall on Thursday to discuss the matters related to substandard CNG kits across the city.
The meeting was attended by SP Security Abdul Ghaffar Qaisrani, DSP Security, assistant commissioners and CNG and LPG dealers.
It was decided in the meeting that all the shops/outlets/sale points will have sign boards carrying the name of the owner with its mobile number and at least one portable extinguisher having extra facility i.e. two sand buckets, two water buckets must be placed at the outlet.
The DCO said that it was the responsibility of the distributors/owner of the shop to ensure that his employees know how to operate the fire fighting equipments. No outlet/ shop will have connection or source of ignition/open flame within the premises while cylinders should be stored in such a manner that in the event of emergency they easily can be taken out to an open place, he ordered.
It was further decided that filled cylinders should not be stacked on top of one another and no shopkeeper is allowed to place the cylinders outside the shop at an open place. The meeting also decided that not more than ten cylinders could be stored at an outlet.
Moreover, the orders are that no outlet will be allowed to open/operate/ store in any basement in the building and would not be allowed operate on a road not less than 20 feet wide. No sale point/ outlet/ shop will be operated/stored/ displayed on the footpath, in the khokha, or on the roadside or in a residential area, while no sale point will be operated near welding shop, hotel, restaurant, food stall, mosque, church, hospital, school, or any other place frequently visited by the public, the meeting decided.
Furthermore, no outlet will be operated in a building which is made up of material which can easily catch fire while all the stores will have proper circulation of air ventilation system, the DCO added.
It has been decided that there should either be a small widow near the floor to allow for ventilation or openings in the ground so as to allow the gas to escape, while all shops/outlets shall have exhaust fan in their shops. Moreover, all the shops/ outlets/ sale points will have underground concealed electrical wiring.
The DCO warned that in case of violation, strict action will be taken against the shopkeepers.