top of page

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.

Farmers’ Protest: Fresh Talks With Centre Begin Over MSP Guarantee, Debt Waiver & Other Demands

  • PTI
  • Mar 19, 2025
  • 2 min read

Updated: Mar 20, 2025

A 28-member farmers' delegation meets central ministers in Chandigarh, hoping for a breakthrough on MSP, debt relief, and other key issues


Farmers’ Protest
A fresh round of talks between protesting farmers and a central delegation to discuss their various demands. | X @PTI_News

Chandigarh: A fresh round of talks between protesting farmers and a central delegation to discuss their various demands, including a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) for crops, is underway here.

Union Agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal reached the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration in Sector 26 here around 11.50 am on Wednesday for the meeting.

Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema and Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian are also part of the meeting.

Ahead of the talks, farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said a 28-member delegation of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha will take part in the meeting.


The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha are spearheading the farmers' stir.

Pandher said the farmers expect the government to resolve their issues.

"We have come here for the meeting with a positive mind. Some decision should come out after the meeting. We expect that the deadlock over the MSP guarantee law will end and the talks will move forward," he told reporters.

The farmers' delegation comprising Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher reached the meeting venue earlier.


Dallewal, who has been on an indefinite fast, came in an ambulance. He said they were expecting the Centre's response on the data presented by farmers in support of their claims.

The last meeting between the farmers and the central delegation was held here on February 22. The meeting was attended by Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.

In the last meeting, the central team sought data from the farmers to back their claims for a legal guarantee for MSP for a discussion with experts.

The farmers said a legal guarantee for MSP can be given with an estimated outlay of Rs 25,000-30,000 crore per annum.


On February 14, a meeting between a central team led by Union minister Joshi and farmers' representatives was held here.

Prior to this meeting, four rounds of meetings took place between central ministers and the protesting farmers in February 2024 but the talks remained inconclusive.

The protesting farmers have been camping at Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 last year after security forces did not allow them to march to Delhi to press their demands.

Besides a legal guarantee for MSP, the farmers are demanding a debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariffs, withdrawal of police cases against farmers, justice for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence in Uttar Pradesh, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21.

Comments

bottom of page