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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Commercial LPG 'evaporates' in Maharashtra

Mumbai : The short supply of commercial LPG cylinders turned ‘grim’ on Wednesday as hundreds of small and medium eateries – on whom the ordinary working Mumbaikars depend on for daily meals – shut down or drastically trimmed menus, on Wednesday.   With an estimated 50,000-plus hotels, restaurants and small food joints, the crunch is beginning to be felt severely, said Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) vice-president and Hotel and Restaurant Association Western...

Commercial LPG 'evaporates' in Maharashtra

Mumbai : The short supply of commercial LPG cylinders turned ‘grim’ on Wednesday as hundreds of small and medium eateries – on whom the ordinary working Mumbaikars depend on for daily meals – shut down or drastically trimmed menus, on Wednesday.   With an estimated 50,000-plus hotels, restaurants and small food joints, the crunch is beginning to be felt severely, said Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) vice-president and Hotel and Restaurant Association Western India (HRAWI) spokesperson Pradeep Shetty.   “We are in continuous touch with the concerned authorities, but the situation is very gloomy. There is no response from the Centre or the Ministry of Petroleum on when the situation will ease. We fear that more than 50 pc of all eateries in Mumbai will soon down the shutters. The same will apply to the rest of the state and many other parts of India,” Shetty told  ‘ The Perfect Voice’ .   The shortage of commercial LPG has badly affected multiple sectors, including the hospitality and food industries, mass private or commercial kitchens and even the laundry businesses, industry players said.   At their wits' ends, many restaurateurs resorted to the reliable old iron ‘chulhas’ (stoves) fired by either coal or wood - the prices of which have also shot up and result in pollution - besides delaying the cooking.   Anticipating a larger crisis, even domestic LPG consumers besieged retail dealers in Mumbai, Pune, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Ratnagiri, Kolhapur, Akola, Nagpur to book their second cylinder, with snaky queues in many cities. The stark reality of the 12-days old Gulf war with the disturbed supplies has hit the people and industries in the food supply chains that feed crores daily.   “The ordinary folks leave home in the morning after breakfast, then they rely on the others in the food chain for their lunch or dinner. Many street retailers have also shut down temporarily,” said Shetty.   Dry Snacks A quick survey of some suburban ‘khau gullies’ today revealed that the available items were mostly cold sandwiches, fruit or vegetable salads, cold desserts or ice-creams, cold beverages and packed snacks. Few offered the regular ‘piping hot’ foods that need elaborate cooking, or charging higher than normal menu rates, and even the app-based food delivery system was impacted.   Many people were seen gloomily munching on colorful packets of dry snacks like chips, chivda, sev, gathiya, samosas, etc. for lunch, the usually cheerful ‘chai ki dukaans’ suddenly disappeared from their corners, though soft drinks and tetrapaks were available.   Delay, Scarcity  Maharashtra LPG Dealers Association President Deepak Singh yesterday conceded to “some delays due to supply shortages” of commercial cylinders, but assured that there is no scarcity of domestic cylinders.   “We are adhering to the Centre’s guidelines for a 25 days booking period between 2 cylinders (domestic). The issue is with commercial cylinders but even those are available though less in numbers,” said Singh, adding that guidelines to prioritise educational institutions, hospitals, and defence, are being followed, but others are also getting their supplies.   Despite the assurances, Shetty said that the current status is extremely serious since the past week and the intermittent disruptions have escalated into a near-total halt in supplies in many regions since Monday.   Adding to the dismal picture is the likelihood of local hoteliers associations in different cities like Pune, Palghar, Nagpur, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, and more resorting to tough measures from Thursday, including temporary shutdown of their outlets, which have run out of gas stocks.

BJP records highest vote share of 26.77 per cent

  • PTI
  • Nov 25, 2024
  • 2 min read

NCP (SP) loses seats but bags more votes than NCP


BJP

Mumbai: The BJP logged the highest vote share of 26.77 per cent in the Maharashtra assembly elections, winning 132 out of 149 seats it had contested and garnering 17,293,650 votes, as per ECI data.


The BJP's 132-seat haul marked a hat-trick of crossing the 100-seat mark in assembly elections. The saffron party had bagged 122 seats in the 2014 elections, which it contested solo without undivided Shiv Sena, and 105 seats in 2019 polls which it faced with the former ally Shiv Sena on its side.


The BJP's stellar performance at Maharashtra hustings, results of which were declared on Saturday, saw the party reaping a rich harvest of 132 seats in the 288-member House. Its Mahayuti partners Shiv Sena and NCP led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar won 57 and 41 seats, respectively.


The Congress, which won only 16 out of 101 seats it had contested, came a distant second with a 12.42 per cent vote share. The Grand Old Party polled 8,020,921 votes.


The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena's tally of 57 seats out of 81 it had contested saw a vote share of 12.38 per cent and 7,996,930 votes.


Interestingly, the vote share of NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and the quantum of votes polled for the party surpassed the rival NCP faction despite the former's rout in the elections.


The NCP (SP) contested 86 seats but won only 10 with an 11.28 per cent vote share and 7,287,797 votes.


In contrast, the Ajit Pawar-led NCP registered a 9.01 per cent vote share despite winning 41 of the 59 seats it had contested and polling 5,816,566 votes.


The rival Shiv Sena (UBT), which won 20 seats, logged a vote share of 9.96 per cent and polled 6,433,013 votes.


At 4,61,886, NOTA votes dropped to 0.72 per cent in Maharashtra.

A voter turnout of 66.05 per cent was recorded for the state assembly elections held on November 20, up from 61.1 per cent in 2019, according to Election Commission officials.

-PTI

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