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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.

Is Caste & Politics Driving a Takeover at Sir J. J. School of Art?

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

J. J. School

Caste and party politics have reared their ugly heads, and this time into the serene campus of Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai, one of the oldest art colleges in the country. According to the buzz amongst the campus faculty, the transfer of JJ’s Dean, Professor Vishwanath Sabale, to the Government College of Art and Design in Nagpur this month is the final nail in the coffin. As per reports, the art professor has been a victim of a hate campaign by a certain lobby within the campus ever since he took over the Dean position in 2011.


Sabale, who belongs to the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category, first joined J.J. School of Art in 2001 and later, through the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC), was appointed to the position of professor in 2006. A few faculty members, while speaking on conditions of anonymity, commented on how Sabale has always been ‘treated differently’ since then. “Ever since Sabale Sir took over the reins of the college in 2011, both the old faculty members along with the alumni members have been running a hate campaign against him by degrading him and his work. Sabale Sir ignored all this and stuck on and continued to do his work. He was instrumental in reviving the many defunct departments of the Institute and ushering in new changes over the years,” he adds, continuing that apart from reviving the 100-year-old plus campus magazine RugaVed, he was also responsible for hosting the Korean Biennale twice on campus along with other prominent events that have elevated the status of JJ on several fronts. Added to that, Sabale was also instrumental in providing a fresh approach to the syllabus, mentoring the careers of many students over the years, as well as restoring many artworks of its illustrious alumni like V. S. Gaitonde, S. H. Raza, Prabhakar Barve, and many more owned by the college and showcasing them to the world.


The exit of Sabale has hit faculty members, mainly those belonging to the minority class who believe that this is nothing but a ploy by a section of former students and faculty belonging to a certain category to oust Sabale by taking the help of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).


“Some former students who may have graduated decades ago want to have access to the campus. They want to use the 10-acre space on the campus as their own studios and run it as their territory. It is a prestige issue for them. This is why they came together and campaigned hard to bring in the de-novo deemed university status to JJ, which the college received last year by collaborating with a few BJP ministers. They wanted to increase the fees too, a clause that Sabale was against. If this happens, then no poor student in the country can afford to study at JJ in the future.


As per the new de-novo policy, Sabale’s position has been wiped out, and all three colleges, namely the College of Applied Art, Architecture, and Fine Art, are under one umbrella. The alumni were pushing to appoint a BJP supporter in place of Sabale and even got many BJP ministers involved, but the present officials overruled the decision, citing a lack of teaching and art experience, and instead promoted the existing professors to heads of departments, transferring Sabale to Nagpur.”


Well, JJ’s huge loss is ultimately Nagpur’s gain, and we eagerly await to see what new miracles Sabale now creates in his new role.


(The author is a senior journalist based in Mumbai. Views personal.)

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