'Licenses issued to 523 CNG stations were legal'

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) officials while briefing a parliamentary panel said that licenses issued to 523 CNG stations since 2008 were legal.
The in-camera meeting of sub-Committee of National Assembly Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources held with Sardar Talib Nakai in the chair took up the issue of the cases of CNG connections/relocations granted by the Authority after February, 6, 2008 when Prime Minister banned issuing of licenses for new CNG stations until further orders.
While the committee members recommended a detailed inquiry into the issue and asked the Petroleum Ministry to take necessary action against the department involved in issuing licenses to 523 CNG stations commissioned from 2008-11 despite the ban on new CNG stations.
Ogra official briefing the meeting said that all the licenses issued after February 2008 were as per rules/regulations and the Authority had not violated the orders of the Prime Minister. On March 3, 2012 directives of the Petroleum Ministry were to suspend gas supply to 551 CNG stations set-up after 2008, but later, on the directives of the Prime Minister on 12 March to Sui-Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) gas supply to these CNG stations were restored.
A member of the parliamentary panel while talking to Business Recorder accused Ogra officials of issuing licenses to these CNG station by accepting bribes of millions of rupees. There was no authority in the country to check corruption of these officials, he added. The Petroleum Ministry officials briefing the committee members said that the country also needed a clear cut gas policy.
Responding to a query of committee members, the representative of Petroleum Ministry said that Ogra was an independent body and the Ministry had nothing to do with the administrative matters of the Authority. He added that Ogra was not bound to get permission from the Ministry for issuing licenses to these CNG station. The committee members observed that the ban was imposed with an intention to overcome gas crisis but Ogra continued issuing licenses to CNG stations. Ogra had also been involved in relocation of CNG stations sites.
"Ogra officials have even been involved in giving provisional back dated licenses and I can prove it," a member of the committee said, adding that ogra must be restructured to ensure transparency in its functions. The member also asked to verify degrees of Ogra officials.
Another member of sub-committee observed that there were many cases wherein No Objection Certificates (NoCs) were not sought but Ogra had given licenses in violation of Prime Minister's directives. "There would have been no gas crisis if Ogra had not engaged in illegal issuance of CNG licenses," he said, adding that the government should probe the matter properly.