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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.

Dependable Cong face Chavan’s loss sends shock waive

Prithviraj Chavan

Mumbai: The defeat of Congress veteran and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan in the Assembly polls in his home district Karad has come as a shock and big setback for him in his decades long political career.


One of the most educated lawmakers in the state, Chavan's career saw him becoming the chief minister of the state and also a Union minister.


Known for his clean and non-controversial image, Chavan, 78, took over as the state's chief minister when the Congress was battling allegations of corruption 2010.


When Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis recently campaigned in Karad South assembly seat, he quipped that Chavan was a politician of international standard and a misfit in the state Vidhan Sabha.


To the shock and surprise of even Chavan's critics, the senior leader lost the seat to BJP's Atul Bhosale by nearly 40,000 votes in the state poll results announced on Saturday.


The defeat is a new low for Chavan personally as well as the Congress, which suffered the worst ever-defeat bagging only 16 seats in the 288-member state assembly.


A graduate in mechanical engineering from BITS Pilani and doing his masters from the University of California, Berkeley, Chavan worked in the US aerospace industry as a research engineer for four year before taking up politics full time in 1991.


In India, he founded a company to develop defence electronic equipment and special purpose computers for air defence, missile control, ASW (anti-submarine warfare), aircraft testing equipment and made significant contributions to research in the field of Indian language computing.


His father and Congress leader Dajisaheb Chavan had served in the cabinets of Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi.


His mother Premla Chavan, popularly known as Premla kaki (aunt), was a three-term Congress MP before her death in 1991.


Prithviraj Chavan started his career in 1991 winning the then Karad seat, which had been held by his parents. He later also won the seat in 1996 and 1998 but lost in 1999.


In 2010, the Congress moved him to Mumbai to replace Ashok Chavan, who had to quit as the CM following a controversy over the Adarsh housing scam.

Prithviraj Chavan became an MLC after taking over as the CM and since 2014, he was MLA from the Karad South seat.


The Coastal Road in Mumbai and the Navi Mumbai international airport were conceptualised by him as chief minister.


An honorary visiting professor at BITS Pilani and a member of the council of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Prithviraj Chavan was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2002 and again in 2008.

 

In 2004, Prithviraj Chavan served as minister of state in the PMO.


He was member of the Atomic Energy Commission and Space Commission from 2004 to 2010. In 2008, he was given additional charge of  the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions, and the ministry of parliamentary affairs.


In 2009, he was elevated to the rank of MoS with independent charge of the ministry of science and technology, and the ministry of earth sciences in addition to his earlier responsibilities.


Cong's performance shocking: Chavan

Prithviraj Chavan on Sunday said his party's defeat was "shocking" and dubbed it as the "worst-ever" loss in the state assembly polls.


Talking to PTI, Chavan said the Mahayuti government's Ladki Bahin Yojana, for providing financial assistance to women, clicked with voters in rural areas while polarisation hit the opposition MVA’s prospects in urban parts of the state.


"It is difficult to say whether there was a wave or tampering," said Chavan, who lost from his Karad South seat.


Chavan said he had spoken to All India Congress Committee in-charge for Maharashtra Ramesh Chennithala, who has left for Delhi to discuss the state results with the Congress leadership.

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