Agencies failed the public in suspected cooking gas cylinders

Dear Editor,
The editorial ‘Gas cylinders lacuna’, published on Feb 4, 2025, has been quite revealing. Recent incidents allegedly of fire and explosion around gas cylinders are a matter of grave concern.
Here, a letter writer who inquired about codified standards and enforcement by the respective agencies has been met with less than satisfactory responses from two agencies. The first agency had no standard, and passed the buck to the second agency. The second agency has developed a standard for storage, handling, and transportation of portable LPG containers, but does not monitor implementation of the requirements of the developed standard, nor does it assume “responsibility to enforce” the standard. What sheer absurdity! What pure balderdash!
It is indeed perplexing that these two agencies — one with no standard, and the other with no responsibility to enforce its own standards (no enforcement has strands of similarity to UN and ICC rulings) — are now part of efforts to review the recent spate of ‘suspected cooking gas cylinder-related explosions’.
The pertinent query raised by the letter writer: as to the state’s responsibility and liability, are relevant, and must be considered in any investigation. State agencies have responsixbility for public safety and welfare. It can be discerned that these agencies failed the public miserably, with dire consequences.

Sincerely,
Shamshun Mohamed