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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.

Congress workers rue ‘weak’ candidates

Mumbai: Veteran Congress leaders and party workers are not only unhappy with the recent seat sharing formula with the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance partners but many of them are dejected over the party’ choice of the candidates.


The Congress list of candidates now stands at 103, while the NCP stands at 87 and Shiv Sena (UBT) at 84.

Congress insiders allege that despite pushing for strong and able candidates, the powers that be have ignored the pleas of the ground level party worker and in some seats of Mumbai and its surrounding areas have instead favoured candidates with no track record of their own.


“Around 23 seats are such that have ‘weak candidates’ meaning those seats have been allocated only to favour the alliance partners and not the Congress party,” said a veteran Congress leader. He pointed out names like Heera Devasi (who has been allotted a ticket from Colaba constituency) was never even a Congress office bearer or someone like Asif Zakaria from Bandra (W) who despite being nominated twice for MLA polls in the past had lost terribly. Another seat is that of Charkop which has been allotted to Yashwant Singh, less known candidate.


“Today the list does not even have a North Indian like ex-party workers Sanjay Nirupam or Kripashankar Singh to fetch the 50 lakh plus North Indian voters that the party represents in areas of Navi Mumbai, Palghar and Bhiwandi as well as in certain pockets of Maharashtra,” the Congress leader said. The alliance partners knowing this deliberately sidelined Nana Patole’s and other leaders’ requests to see that they got the best seats to contest.


Many Congressmen alleged that all of this is a ploy by the alliance partners themselves to see that they win from the best seats and lay claim to the post of the Chief Minister if the MVA comes to power. It makes no difference that the Congress is contesting from over 100 seats simply because most of the seats eventually do not work in favour of the party and the candidates are sure to lose in many.


Sachin Sawant, one of the Congress candidates who was allotted a ticket by the party from Andheri (west) returned the ticket in favour of his colleague Ashok Jadhav instead. He says it happens and ultimately doesn’t matter. “It is a good thing that the party considered you. The seat which I was demanding has gone to the Shiv Sena (UBT). So it is not the fault of our leadership. They took it themselves,” Sawant said.


Another Congress leader pointed that NCP and Shiv Sena have favoured their ground level workers. All parties have given tickets to their ex-councillors whereas the Congress has ignored all former councillors. “The ones who did get the tickets are those who are backed by people in the decision-making process. They have political godfathers and get adjusted in some way or the other. We don’t get adjusted. Local ground level leaders like me have been ignored due to which the Congress party might end up paying a heavy price,” said the leader.


Nizamudding Rayen, Spokesperson of Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC), said that the Congress was always the largest party and  will be the largest one. “Despite what anyone says, the Congress will come back as the number one party in Maharashtra.”

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