India has emerged as the world's biggest cylinder-based liquefied petroleum gas user with the customer base crossing 7 crore (70 million mark), Petroleum Minister Ram Naik told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

Replying to Savita Sharda during Question Hour, the minister said the figure had nearly doubled in the last four years. He said the gas agencies had been given to rural areas in the recent years.

He said the compressed natural gas pipeline laid in Delhi had become stabilised resulting in shorter queues of vehicles. When the situation improved, the government proposed to supply gas to the residential areas through pipeline, he said.

About the complaints of pilferage of gas cylinders, Naik said the government was aware of the incidents and hence had included LPG under the Essential Commodities Act 1955.

The state governments were empowered to act against erring distributors under the Act. The government had laid down marketing discipline guidelines for LPG distributors of oil marketing companies in 2001.

The distributors were under strict instructions to supply cylinders of right quantity and quality to the customers.

UNI