Jaipur: Rajasthan High Court has cautioned public sector oil company IOCL against “a major accident (that) can happen at any time” after it spotted trucks loaded with gas cylinders parked outside the PSU’s LPG bottling plant at Mokhampura on the Jaipur-Ajmer National Highway. Rapping the company and its high-ranking staff, the court observed that they lacked the will to fix the problem, in a stark display of negligence.A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and Justice Shubha Mehta made the remarks Wednesday while hearing a public interest litigation filed by OP Tak, a resident of Kathputli Nagar, seeking the shifting of IOCL’s LPG bottling plant from Sitapura Industrial Area, citing public safety concerns because the facility is in a densely populated area.The court said it earlier directed registration of an FIR against IOCL officials if trucks were found parked outside gas bottling plants.The bench also referred to earlier court concern over roadside parking of cylinder-laden trucks on the Jaipur-Ajmer highway, where an LPG tanker blast earlier caused major deaths.The judges said they personally saw trucks parked across the entire service lane near the Mokhampura facility while traveling from Jaipur to Jodhpur, raising concerns about safety and traffic movement.Additional Solicitor General Bharat Vyas told the court that construction work was underway near the Mokhampura plant, which could add to the hazard.Petitioner’s counsel Abhinav Sharma submitted aerial photographs of IOCL’s new Jaipur Oil Terminal at Phagi Renwal and said that after a major fire in 2009, IOCL’s oil depot was shifted to Mohanpura in Phagi Renwal, where ample govt land is available. He said the gas depot was also meant to be relocated there and a decision was taken in 2009, but a university and other projects were now being allowed nearby.The court sought a response from the director of industries and commerce on why only the oil depot was shifted to Phagi despite land being identified for the gas plant as well.Calling the Sitapura plant location “thickly populated,” the court said final orders on the PIL were now necessary and listed the matter for hearing in the first week of July.
