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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.

Holding Fort in Raigad

Updated: Nov 7, 2024

Raigad

In the seaside region of Raigad, ‘musical chairs’ seems to be the preferred game by members of the Tatkare family. In a constituency once represented by former Maharashtra Chief Minister A R Antulay, brothers Sunil and Anil Tatkare are on two sides of the NCP, pitted against each other for political supremacy. If Sunil was appointed the state president of the Ajit Pawar faction when he pulled off a coup in 2023, older brother Anil joined the NCP (SP) earlier this year and was appointed its state vice president, after switching parties thrice in the past five years. The Tatkare family has spread its wings wide in the region—if Sunil is the member of parliament from Raigad, daughter Aditi is a minister in the state government while son Aniket is a member of the legislative council or an MLC. His brother Anil is a former MLC who occupied the position between 2010 and 2018, his son Avdhoot is a former member of the assembly from Shrivardhan. Such is the influence and spread of the family over the region of Raigad.


Sunil began his career as a government contractor and joined the Congress in the late 1980s and became an MLA from Shrivardhan in 1995, a constituency he won until 2014. In two decades, he also held the post of a minister for departments such as energy, finance, food and civil supplies. In 2014, his nephew Avdhoot won from Shrivardhan. Since 2019, Sunil has been a Member of Parliament from Raigad and is also a key member of the NCP. He was at the forefront during splitting the NCP, along with Ajit Pawar and Praful Patel. While the NCP (SP) charged him of anti-party activities, Patel appointed him as the state president of the NCP. In 2012, the BJP had accused him of involvement in a land scam.


The area, which sees high tourist footfall because of the Raigad Fort and other destinations, has seen little development over the years.


Sunil’s daughter Aditi began her political career as the president of the Raigad Zilla Parishad in 2017 and then in 2019, won the assembly elections from the constituency her father had represented for several years. She was made a minister of state in the MVA government and then became a minister, once again, in the Mahayuti government in 2023.


Anil and Avdhoot have switched parties often, starting with the NCP, moving to the Shiv Sena in 2019, then to the BJP in 2022 and now the father-son duo is in the NCP (SP).

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