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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.

Family Farce

Once again, Bihar’s most storied political family has traded governance for melodrama. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) founded by Lalu Prasad Yadav ostensibly to fight for social justice, has become less a political outfit and more a family-run reality show. The latest episode stars Lalu’s mercurial elder son, Tej Pratap Yadav, who was dramatically expelled by his father from both party and family for the grievous crime of publicly declaring love with another woman.


“Disregard for moral values weakens our struggle for social justice,” Lalu posted on X (formerly Twitter) after expelling his wayward son. That Lalu Prasad, convicted fodder scamster and longtime purveyor of Bihar’s worst excesses, should lecture anyone on moral values is a bit like Oscar Wilde teaching temperance or Donald Trump conducting a seminar on marital fidelity.


Tej Pratap, never one to be tethered by logic or discretion (he once compared himself to Krishna and his brother Tejashwi to Arjuna), claimed his account was hacked. One is left wondering if this was a personal crisis or an audition for the next Ekta Kapoor serial. His girlfriend apparently materialised from twelve years of secrecy, just in time to detonate his father’s electoral prospects as Bihar heads into a keenly-contested poll.


For seasoned watchers of Indian dynasties, this is not a fall from grace but gravitational inevitability. The Nehru-Gandhi family do palace intrigue with a veneer of Nehruvian gravitas. The Yadavs of Bihar offer something earthier: a blend of Lear, Bal Thackeray and the Real Housewives of Pataliputra. Rabri Devi, the former chief minister and mother of the errant Tej, appears resigned. Like Goneril and Regan in reverse, she watches as her family devours itself.


Meanwhile, Tejashwi Yadav, the anointed heir and Lalu’s most plausible political investment, has played the dutiful brother while keeping an arm’s length from the wreckage. It appears Tej Pratap’s recent attempt to float a parallel ideological group called the ‘Dharmanirpeksha Sevak Sangh’ was the final straw. Not content with flouting marital vows, he was now flirting with heresy. Worse, his theatrics risked diverting attention from the RJD’s one great asset: the illusion of unity.


The irony is that the Yadav family has become what they once claimed to fight - dynastic, unaccountable, mired in corruption and farcically out of touch. The ruling BJP and JD(U) must be enjoying the spectacle with popcorn in hand.


This saga exposes the deep rot within the RJD. Lalu’s brothers-in-law, Sadhu Yadav and Subhash Yadav, have defected. Rabri is little more than a shadow. Tejashwi, while competent, is weighed down by the baggage of family loyalty.


One cannot build social justice on a foundation of family theatrics and moral hypocrisy. As always with the Yadavs, the line between satire and reportage is perilously thin. As the state gears up for assembly elections, Lalu, who once rode to power promising social justice, feels the need to clarify his family’s moral compass. But this time, he may find the voters simply bored.

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