An association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinder delivery men has approached the Madras High Court conceding that its members do charge more than the bill amount from consumers because agencies which employ them do not part with delivery charges added to the total bill amount.
When a public interest litigation petition filed against overcharging of consumers by the delivery men came up for hearing before a Division Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and Krishnan Ramasamy, a lawyer representing Tamil Nadu LPG Delivery Men’s Association told the court that it wanted to get itself impleaded.
The advocate said both consumers as well as delivery men were “actually victims” and that it was the LPG agencies which swindle the delivery charge collected from every consumer along with the price of the gas by including it in the bill. He said oil companies must make sure that the charges were paid promptly to the delivery men.
He alleged that most of the LPG agencies, spread across the State, do not even pay monthly salary or daily wages or any kind of wages for that matter to the delivery men and expect the latter to fend for themselves by charging over and above the bill amount from every consumer to whom the cylinders were delivered.
On the other hand, counsel appearing for the oil companies said the contracts entered between them and the agencies clearly state that the delivery men should be paid wages as per the provisions of the Minimum Wages Act of 1948.
They also said a mechanism was in place to lodge complaints regarding overcharging from consumers. The judges directed the oil companies to come up with a concrete solution to the problem within two weeks. The judges said a mechanism should be in place to ensure that charges were paid to delivery men.
In his affidavit, the PIL petitioner M. Logarangan, a doctor from Annanur in Avadi had claimed that the delivery men fleece from anywhere between ₹20 and ₹100 more than the bill amount from each consumer by citing the physical strain they undergo to transport the cylinders from the agencies and then carry them from their vehicles to the residence of consumers.
He also alleged that some of the delivery men intimidated consumers and take away additional money forcibly. “They abuse the customer and most of the time, the women and the elderly at home bear the brunt,” he said and accused them of even going to the extent of removing the washer from the cylinders, leading to gas leak, if the consumers refuse to pay more.
