VIVAnews - The continuing explosions of 3-kg LPG cylinders have caused dozens of people to suffer from various wounds.
According to member of Mining and Energy Commission at the House of Representatives (DPR), M Romahurmuzy, said that since the kerosene conversion program was initiated in 2008, 60 cases of gas cylinder explosions have taken place.
The latest report on the cylinder explosion involved a restaurant on July 5 in West Jakarta. Jaenah, owner of the restaurant, was the born victim.
Due to the on-going incidents, complaints are filling the air. The DPR accused state oil and gas Pertamina as the actor behind this. Former Indonesian vice president, Jusuf Kalla - initiator of kerosene-to-gas conversion program, pointed his finger to the government. The government finally blamed consumers for not being too prudent in using LPG.
Former state minister of Disadvantaged Province Development, Lukman Edy, urge the government withdraw every LPG cylinder available in the market.
Jusuf Kalla pointed out that the explosions were due to the weak monitoring over either the production or import of LPG cylinders.
However, the government refused the blame over the LPG explosion case. Secretary to Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, Indroyono, acknowledged that tight supervision has been set out on cylinders, tubes, regulators and rubber seals manufactured by Pertamina.
"Early investigation shows that the cylinders are okay. No incident was caused by cylinder leakage," he said.
Energy and Mineral Resources Minister, Darwin Zahedi, said minimum campaign over safe LPG use was the cause of cylinder explosion. "People deal with problems. One as such is concerned with tube," Darwin said.
Ministry of State-owned Enterprises also denied the attack against it. He in fact revealed that the 3-kg cylinders circulating in the market are mostly fake.
Bahkan, Sekretaris Kementerian BUMN Said Didu menduga ada pihak-pihak yang sengaja memproduksi tabung gas tanpa sepengetahuan pihak terkait. Dugaan itu didasarkan pada banyaknya perusahaan yang tiba-tiba memproduksi tabung gas dan membentuk asosiasi karena nilainya triliunan rupiah.
Spokesperson of the SOEs Ministry, Said Didu, said Pertamina only purchases cylinders from recommended companies. Pertamina, he said, can never produce cylinders exceeding the set limit.
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Translated by: Bonardo Maulana W
mR.rAID
07/08/2010
