Kathmandu, June 22

Gas bottlers have withdrawn their protest after the government agreed to revoke its earlier decision to suspend the product delivery order (PDO) of Himalayan Petrochemicals Pvt Ltd, the company that manufactures HP brand of gas cylinders.

The talks between Ministry of Supply (MoS) and Nepal LP Gas Industry Association (NLPGIA) held today at the ministry concluded after government agreed to remove PDO suspension.

The Consumer Protection Council, led by the supply minister, had suspended the PDO of Himalayan Petrochemicals last week, around a month after the fatal explosion of HP Gas cylinder in Haugal tole of Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan City on May 20 that killed three people.

The association had appealed to all the bottling plants to stop buying cooking gas from India from Tuesday to put pressure on the government to roll back its decision.

A government-formed investigation team has said in its report that further investigation is required to look into the thickness of the metal of the gas cylinder. The team has, however, ruled out the possibility of the explosion being caused due to lack of hydrostatic tests.

After receiving the report on Sunday, the government had called the NLPGIA for talks on the condition that Himalayan Petrochemicals clears the compensation to the victims’ families.

NLPGIA and the MoS team sat for talks today after the company handed over the compensation amount worth Rs 4.1 million to the victims’ families, according to Anandaram Regmi, joint secretary of the MoS. “The Ministry will write to Nepal Oil Corporation to issue the PDO to Himalayan Petrochemicals on a regular basis as earlier.”