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CAA mediates in hearing for alleged Litro victim

30 Dec 2021

  • Victim’s spouse critical of ‘answerless’ Litro
  • Queries Litro Chair’s absence at hearing; claims ‘Litro giving insurance to victims, a lie’
  • Victim being treated at Colombo NHSL; spouse slams MPs treating matter as a joke
By Pamodi Waravita The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) conducted a hearing on Tuesday (28) concerning Litro Gas Lanka Ltd. and a husband who had filed a complaint regarding the matter of his wife becoming a victim of a liquid petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder-related explosion and having sustained injuries from the incident earlier this month. Speaking to the media after the hearing, the complainant husband in question, Milinda Premaratne, claimed that the officials who had represented Litro Gas Lanka at the hearing were “unable” to answer his questions. “Even though Litro Gas Lanka is saying that it will give insurance to the victims, I believe that this is a lie. We expected the Litro Gas Lanka Chairman to come, but he did not come. His secretary called me at an earlier date and said that he will come to our home, but he did not come. I think, if he had sent the security guards at the company to this hearing, it would have been better, as the officials who turned up could not answer any questions,” said Premaratne. Speaking further, Premaratne said that his wife had sustained serious injuries during the incident in Peliyagoda earlier this month and is currently receiving treatment at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL) in Colombo. “Her face, arms, and legs are burnt. She has to undergo a skin transplant and she cannot see out of one side of one eye. She has various internal complications too. My child and I have to monitor her round the clock. Parliamentarians have taken this as a joke. Our hurt and tears are a joke to them. My family has already been destroyed. I heard one MP say that these incidents are happening because females have gas inside them. That MP’s wife and mother are also females. Does he not know the importance and value of females?” he questioned. Premaratne said that he has filed complaints with both the CAA and the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) regarding the incident. On 14 December, Litro Gas Lanka announced a Rs. 1 million insurance programme, claimable for damages, bodily harm, or death which can be proven as having occurred due to a manufacturing defect of their LPG cylinders. By mid-December, over 800 LPG cylinder-related incidents occurred in the country during this year, with seven deaths and 16 injuries. The presidential expert committee appointed to investigate the recent LPG-related explosions blamed the increase in the propane ratio for the explosions.


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