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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.

Hindi-Dravidian? Nahin Nahin!

Updated: Mar 3, 2025

Tamil Nadu’s Language Wars rage on in right earnest as M.K. Stalin spearheads the state’s age-old resistance to Hindi imposition, exposing increasing fault lines between Centre and State.

Hindi-Dravidian
Tamil Nadu

Few issues in Tamil Nadu evoke as much passion as the spectre of Hindi imposition. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s recent remarks warning of a renewed “language war” have reignited a decades-old conflict between Tamil linguistic pride and the Centre’s attempts at national integration through Hindi. The DMK, which has long positioned itself as the guardian of Tamil identity, sees the BJP-led central government’s three-language policy as an existential threat to the state’s linguistic autonomy.


Tamil Nadu’s opposition to Hindi dates back to the pre-Independence era. When the Congress government under C. Rajagopalachari attempted to introduce Hindi as a compulsory subject in schools between 1937 and 1939, it provoked mass protests led by the Justice Party and social reformers like E.V. Ramasamy ‘Periyar’. The protests, brought on by the fear that Tamil would be relegated to a secondary status, were among the first large-scale agitations in modern Indian history based on language.


The conflict resurfaced in 1965 when the Union government sought to implement Hindi as India’s sole official language, triggering violent student protests across Tamil Nadu. The agitation, spearheaded by the DMK, led to the deaths of several protesters and ultimately forced the Centre to back down. In response, the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri assured that English would continue as a link language alongside Hindi. This victory was pivotal for the DMK, which rode the wave of anti-Hindi sentiment to power in 1967. Since then, successive Tamil Nadu governments regardless of party affiliation have adhered to a strict two-language formula of Tamil and English, rejecting any attempts to include Hindi in the state’s curriculum.


The current controversy stems from the National Education Policy (NEP), which advocates a three-language formula, with Hindi being the preferred third language in non-Hindi-speaking states. The BJP has consistently argued that Hindi is essential for national cohesion and economic mobility, a stance that finds little sympathy in Tamil Nadu. Stalin’s latest salvo, asserting that the state will not tolerate Hindi imposition, reaffirms the DMK’s historic position.


The Tamil Nadu BJP chief, K. Annamalai, has countered these claims, accusing the DMK of hypocrisy. He points out that while private schools in the state allow students to learn Hindi and other languages, government schools restrict them to Tamil and English, creating a disparity between the elite and the working class. Yet, the BJP’s arguments fail to address a fundamental truth that Tamil Nadu’s economic success, particularly in higher education and employment, has been achieved without Hindi.


Beyond linguistic concerns, the battle over Hindi is deeply political. The DMK has always used language as a rallying point to consolidate its voter base, portraying itself as the defender of Tamil culture against ‘northern imposition.’


The BJP, meanwhile, views Tamil Nadu as a critical frontier in its southern expansion. By positioning itself as a champion of Hindi and a party committed to a pan-Indian linguistic identity, it hopes to erode the DMK’s influence. However, past attempts have backfired. In 2019, the Union government’s decision to make Hindi mandatory in all central government exams was met with intense resistance, forcing a quick rollback.


Compounding Tamil Nadu’s grievances is the looming delimitation exercise, which could see the state lose up to eight Lok Sabha seats due to its success in population control. Stalin has argued that this would further diminish Tamil Nadu’s voice in national affairs, affecting its ability to resist policies such as the NEP and central fund allocations. The DMK sees this as another example of Tamil Nadu being punished for its progressive policies, reinforcing the narrative that the Centre is indifferent to the state’s interests.


Stalin’s defiance signals that the DMK is ready to fight, and if past struggles are any indication, the people of Tamil Nadu will stand firmly behind him.

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