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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.

Certificate Calculus

The Maharashtra government’s decision to launch a revised Occupancy Certificate (OC) amnesty scheme is, on its face, a long-overdue step toward bringing order to Mumbai’s urban landscape. Announced by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in the Legislative Assembly, the initiative aims to regularise nearly 20,000 buildings that have gone without OCs for years owing to minor deviations from their approved plans. More than 10 lakh residents - many of whom have paid double property tax, higher water charges and inflated sewerage fees - stand to benefit.


The absence of an OC can trap homeowners in a cycle of financial and legal vulnerability: resale values dip, access to home loans becomes difficult, and even routine redevelopment turns into a labyrinth of restrictions. Hospitals and schools caught in the category of ‘unauthorised constructions’ remain unable to expand or upgrade. A city that prides itself on being India’s financial nerve centre has long lived with regulatory gaps that would be unthinkable in most global business capitals.


The new scheme offers welcome clarity. Buildings constructed under the Development Control Regulations of the BMC, as well as those under MHADA, the SRA and other planning authorities, will be eligible. Proposals filed within the first six months will enjoy complete waiver of penalties. Those filed between six months and a year will face a 50 percent penalty. Societies applying for regularisation will receive a 50 percent concession on premiums, assessed on ready reckoner rates - a significant relief for structures struggling with compliance. In a notable innovation, even individual flat owners may apply independently for an OC, enabling residents in large societies to resolve long-standing issues without being held hostage by internal disagreements. The scheme is to be eventually be implemented in other municipal corporations across Maharashtra, creating a uniform regulatory framework.


All said, the timing of this announcement difficult to ignore. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation - Asia’s richest civic body and the political jewel of Maharashtra - is set for elections. For the ruling Mahayuti coalition led by Devendra Fadnavis, regaining control of the BMC is both a political necessity and a strategic ambition to wrest it from the Thackeray clan, which had controlled the corporation for over two decades and remains a formidable presence in Mumbai’s civic politics. Measures that promise direct relief to more than 2.5 lakh families are bound to have electoral implications.


Governments often push through popular reforms in the run-up to elections. In Mumbai, where urban planning has long been a patchwork of improvisations, stalled projects and regulatory contradictions, any serious attempt at regularisation is welcome. But it is also true that the city’s governance tends to quicken only when the BMC’s vast resources and its electoral significance are at stake.


The revised OC scheme may well resolve hundreds of disputes that have festered for years. But it also serves as a reminder that policy momentum in Mumbai occurs only when the political stakes are the highest.

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